Literature Reviews

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

• Representing Coordination and Non-Coordination in an American Sign Language Animation

  Matt Huenerfauth (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper introduces the Partition/Constitute (P/C) Formalism, a new computational representation for encoding the multichannel structure of American Sign Language (ASL) performances to support English-to-ASL machine translation and animation. ASL i…

  • American Sign Language
  • sign language animation
  • machine translation
  • natural language processing
  • deaf accessibility
  • signing avatar
  • multimodal generation
  • gesture generation

• A Parametric Approach to Sign Language Synthesis

  Amanda Irving, Richard Foulds (2005) — Proceedings of the 7th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '05)

  This paper describes a parametric approach to synthesizing American Sign Language (ASL) using a commercially available human avatar (UGS Jack) driven by kinematic parameters. The system addresses the fundamental challenge that signed and spoken langu…

  • sign language
  • sign language synthesis
  • signing avatar
  • American Sign Language
  • animation
  • deaf accessibility
  • fingerspelling
  • motion capture

• Towards Fully Automated Motion Capture of Signs -- Development and Evaluation of a Key Word Signing Avatar

  Simon Alexanderson, Jonas Beskow (2015) — ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS)

  This research develops a cost-effective method for capturing sign language motion to animate a signing avatar for the Tivoli project—a game-based learning environment teaching Key Word Signing (KWS) to children with communication disabilities includi…

  • sign language
  • motion capture
  • signing avatar
  • augmentative and alternative communication
  • Key Word Signing
  • Swedish Sign Language
  • animation
  • virtual characters
  • children

• Sign Language Support System for Viewing Sports Programs

  Tsubasa Uchida, Taro Miyazaki, Makiko Azuma, Shuichi Umeda, Naoto Kato, Hideki Sumiyoshi, Yuko Yamanouchi, Nobuyuki Hiruma (2017) — Proceedings of the 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper from NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) presents a prototype system that provides Japanese Sign Language (JSL) support for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers watching sports broadcasts. The system was developed in response to…

  • sign language
  • signing avatar
  • Japanese Sign Language
  • deaf and hard of hearing
  • media accessibility
  • sports accessibility
  • computer graphics
  • broadcast accessibility

• Mobile Sign Language Translation System for Deaf Community

  Mehrez Boulares, Mohamed Jemni (2012) — Proceedings of the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A)

  This paper from the University of Tunis presents a mobile web service for translating written text into sign language using a 3D virtual signing agent on Android devices. The system addresses two interrelated accessibility challenges: deaf and hard o…

  • sign language
  • deaf accessibility
  • mobile accessibility
  • machine translation
  • signing avatar
  • assistive technology
  • web services
  • 3D animation

• AfricaSign -- A Crowd-sourcing Platform for the Documentation of STEM Vocabulary in African Sign Languages

  Abdelhadi Soudi, Kristof Van Laerhoven, Elmostafa Bou-Souf (2019) — Proceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This demonstration paper presents AfricaSign, a web-based crowdsourcing platform designed to enable African Deaf communities to document their endangered sign languages, with a focus on early-grade and STEM vocabulary. Most African sign languages are…

  • sign language
  • Africa
  • endangered languages
  • crowdsourcing
  • signing avatar
  • STEM accessibility
  • Deaf education
  • language documentation
  • digital inclusion
  • developing nations