Sign Language and Technology
There are a number of efforts being made to integrate people with hearing disabilities into mainstream society. The efforts are concentrated towards making their lives not only more comfortable, but also more productive. There are a number of experimental technologies that are working on converting spoken English to sign language and vice-versa.
Once these products are mature and commercially viable, there will definitely be an increase in the number of educational and employment opportunities for the hearing disabled. However, society needs to change the way it looks at the disabled people. Although attitudes are changing, much more needs to be done in this direction.
Today, technology has provided a number of solutions to remedy hearing disabilities. Hearing aids have undergone tremendous improvements. Cochlear implants are now available that can correct deafness or hearing disability in certain cases.
However, there are people with hearing disability whose condition cannot be corrected through such means. Sign language is a viable and time-tested solution for people with hearing disabilities that cannot be cured. Much of the research work that is being carried out to use technology for providing solutions to the hearing disabled is also largely based upon sign language.
One of the solutions that is being worked on is a two way dictionary that converts spoken English into sign language, and vice versa. The development of such a solution is a technological challenge. The technology is very much in the stage that speech recognition software was around two decades ago.
Although such research is in its infancy, once it is commercially viable, it can bring tremendous change to the way that sign language is taught and interpreted. The hearing disabled will be able to {learn sign languages| easily attend sign language courses} with the help of such technologies. The hearing disabled will be less dependent on interpreters or teachers of sign language
The time may not be far away when we can think in terms of including sign language as a regular language in our school curriculum, thereby eliminating the social barriers that have segregated the hearing disabled.
