Literature Reviews

Reviewed research papers, articles, and publications relevant to digital accessibility.

• Effect of Sign-recognition Performance on the Usability of Sign-language Dictionary Search

  Saad Hassan, Oliver Alonzo, Abraham Glasser, Matt Huenerfauth (2021) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper investigates how the performance of sign-language recognition technology affects user satisfaction with ASL dictionary search systems. Unlike written languages where users can type unfamiliar words to look them up, ASL learners who encount…

  • American Sign Language
  • ASL
  • sign language recognition
  • dictionary search
  • information retrieval
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • usability
  • search interfaces
  • computer vision

• The FATE Landscape of Sign Language AI Datasets: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

  Danielle Bragg, Oscar Koller, Mary Bellard, Larwan Berke, Patrick Boudreault, Annelies Braffort, Naomi Caselli, Matt Huenerfauth, Hernisa Kacorri, Tessa Verhoef, Christian Vogler, Meredith Ringel Morris (2021) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This interdisciplinary paper examines the ethical landscape of AI datasets used for sign language recognition, generation, and translation technologies. Drawing on expertise from deaf community members, sign language linguists, and AI researchers, th…

  • sign language
  • AI datasets
  • deaf community
  • FATE framework
  • machine learning
  • sign language recognition
  • sign language generation
  • sign language translation
  • data ethics
  • accessibility research

• A Systematic Review of User Studies as a Basis for the Design of Systems for Automatic Sign Language Processing

  Soraia Prietch, J. Alfredo Sánchez, Josefina Guerrero (2022) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This systematic literature review examines how user studies have been conducted in the design of Automatic Sign Language Processing (ASLP) systems. The authors searched seven repositories plus Google Scholar, identifying 2,486 papers and ultimately s…

  • sign language
  • automatic sign language processing
  • user studies
  • participatory design
  • Deaf community
  • systematic literature review
  • sign language recognition
  • sign language generation
  • sign language translation

• Real-Time Depth-Camera Based Hand Tracking for ASL Recognition

  Brandon Taylor, Anind Dey, Daniel Siewiorek, Asim Smailagic (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper validates the use of a publicly available real-time hand tracking algorithm (Sphere-Mesh) for recognizing American Sign Language (ASL) handshapes using a depth camera. Sign Language Recognition (SLR) has long been a motivatin…

  • sign language recognition
  • hand tracking
  • computer vision
  • depth camera
  • machine learning
  • American Sign Language
  • fingerspelling
  • deaf and hard of hearing

• Pattern recognition and synthesis for sign language translation system

  M. Ohki, H. Sagawa, T. Sakiyama, E. Oohira, H. Ikeda, H. Fujisawa (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

  This paper describes a bidirectional sign language translation system being developed to translate between Japanese Sign Language (JSL) and written Japanese. The system addresses both directions of translation: recognizing sign language input and con…

  • sign language recognition
  • sign language synthesis
  • Japanese Sign Language
  • gesture recognition
  • DataGlove
  • 3D animation
  • computer graphics
  • machine translation
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • pattern recognition
  • bidirectional translation

• Effect of Automatic Sign Recognition Performance on the Usability of Video-Based Search Interfaces for Sign Language Dictionaries

  Oliver Alonzo, Abraham Glasser, Matt Huenerfauth (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper investigates how the performance of automatic sign recognition technology affects user satisfaction when searching for unfamiliar words in an ASL-to-English dictionary. Looking up an unknown sign in ASL is fundamentally harder than looking…

  • sign language
  • ASL
  • sign language recognition
  • dictionary
  • Deaf and hard of hearing
  • information retrieval
  • Wizard of Oz
  • usability
  • computer vision
  • evaluation methods

• Sign Language Recognition, Generation, and Translation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

  Danielle Bragg, Oscar Koller, Mary Bellard, Larwan Berke, Patrick Boudreault, Annelies Braffort, Naomi Caselli, Matt Huenerfauth, Hernisa Kacorri, Tessa Verhoef, Christian Vogler, Meredith Ringel Morris (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2019)

  This paper provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary overview of sign language processing — encompassing recognition, generation, and translation — produced through a two-day workshop bringing together 39 experts from computer science, linguistics, …

  • sign language
  • Deaf culture
  • computer vision
  • natural language processing
  • machine translation
  • sign language recognition
  • sign language generation
  • avatars
  • ASL
  • interdisciplinary research
  • dataset challenges

• A Portable Hong Kong Sign Language Translation Platform with Deep Learning and Jetson Nano

  Zhenxing Zhou, Yisiang Neo, King-Shan Lui, Vincent W.L. Tam, Edmund Y. Lam, Ngai Wong (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents a portable platform for translating Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) into spoken language using deep learning and edge computing hardware. The system addresses a significant communication gap: Hong Kong has over 155,00…

  • sign language recognition
  • deep learning
  • edge computing
  • mobile accessibility
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • assistive technology
  • Hong Kong Sign Language

• Exploring Collection of Sign Language Datasets: Privacy, Participation, and Model Performance

  Danielle Bragg, Oscar Koller, Naomi Caselli, William Thies (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

  This paper tackles a fundamental tension in building machine learning systems for marginalized communities: the need for large training datasets versus the privacy risks of collecting data from small, identifiable populations. The authors focus on si…

  • sign language
  • privacy
  • machine learning
  • data collection
  • Deaf culture
  • computer vision
  • sign language recognition

• Understanding Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Users' Interest in Sign-Language Interaction with Personal-Assistant Devices

  Abraham Glasser, Vaishnavi Mande, Matt Huenerfauth (2021) — Proceedings of the 18th International Web for All Conference (W4A '21)

  This mixed-methods study investigates Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) users' experiences with and interest in personal-assistant devices (such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home) that could understand American Sign Language (ASL) commands. The research w…

  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • sign language
  • personal assistants
  • voice interface
  • smart home
  • sign language recognition
  • user research