Literature Reviews — A11y Paradise

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…

Multimedia dictionary of American Sign Language

Sherman Wilcox, Joanne Scheibman, Doug Wood, Dennis Cokely, William C. Stokoe (1994) — Proceedings of the First Annual ACM Conference on Assistive Technologies (Assets '94)

This paper describes the Multimedia Dictionary of American Sign Language (MM-DASL), a Macintosh application functioning as a bilingual ASL-English dictionary that presents signs in full-motion digital video using Apple's QuickTime technology. The pro…

Closed ASL Interpreting for Online Videos

Raja Kushalnagar, Matthew Seita, Abraham Glasser (2017) — Proceedings of the 14th International Web for All Conference (W4A)

This paper introduces "closed interpreting," a concept analogous to closed captioning but for sign language interpretation of online videos. While many deaf viewers prefer ASL interpreters over captions (as verbatim captioning speed often exceeds rea…

Creating questionnaires that align with ASL linguistic principles and cultural practices within the Deaf community

Rachel Boll, Shruti Mahajan, Jeanne Reis, Erin T. Solovey (2020) — ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

This poster paper from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and The Learning Center for the Deaf addresses a fundamental gap in HCI research methodology: most interactive computing tools, including survey and questionnaire platforms, are designed exclusiv…

Teaching ASL Signs using Signing Avatars and Immersive Learning in Virtual Reality

Lorna C. Quandt, Jason Lamberton, Athena S. Willis, Jianye Wang, Kaitlyn Weeks, Emily Kubicek, Melissa Malzkuhn (2020) — Proceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2020)

This demonstration paper presents SAIL (Signing Avatars & Immersive Learning), the first ASL instructional system built for immersive virtual reality. Developed at Gallaudet University by a majority-Deaf team, SAIL uses a signing avatar — a computer-…

American Sign Language Video Anonymization to Support Online Participation of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users

Sooyeon Lee, Abraham Glasser, Becca Dingman, Zhaoyang Xia, Dimitris Metaxas, Carol Neidle, Matt Huenerfauth (2021) — ASSETS '21: The 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) individuals who prefer to communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) face a unique privacy barrier online: because ASL is a visual language conveyed through movements of the face, head, hands, and torso, and because th…

At a Different Pace: Evaluating Whether Users Prefer Timing Parameters in American Sign Language Animations to Differ from Human Signers' Timing

Sedeeq Al-khazraji, Becca Dingman, Sooyeon Lee, Matt Huenerfauth (2021) — Proceedings of the 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '21)

This paper investigates whether deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) ASL signers actually prefer sign language animations with timing parameters that match human signers, or whether they prefer some form of exaggeration for additional clarity. Adding ASL a…

Support in the Moment: Benefits and use of video-span selection and search for sign-language video comprehension among ASL learners

Saad Hassan, Akhter Al Amin, Caluã de Lacerda Pataca, Diego Navarro, Alexis Gordon, Sooyeon Lee, Matt Huenerfauth (2022) — Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22)

This paper investigates technology to support American Sign Language (ASL) learners in comprehending challenging sign-language videos by enabling in-context dictionary lookup. The researchers conducted two studies at Rochester Institute of Technology…

User Perceptions and Preferences for Online Surveys in American Sign Language: An Exploratory Study

Rachel Boll, Shruti Mahajan, Tish Burke, Khulood Alkhudaidi, Brittany Henriques, Isabelle Cordova, Zoey Walker, Erin T. Solovey, Jeanne Reis (2023) — Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

This paper presents SL-Surveys, an interactive prototype survey tool designed from the ground up for American Sign Language (ASL) rather than retrofitting text-based survey platforms with ASL video content. The research team, which included Deaf ASL-…

The Sem-Lex Benchmark: Modeling ASL Signs and their Phonemes

Lee Kezar, Jesse Thomason, Naomi Caselli, Zed Sehyr, Elana Pontecorvo (2023) — ASSETS '23: Proceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

This paper introduces the Sem-Lex Benchmark, the largest curated dataset of its kind for American Sign Language (ASL) isolated sign recognition, containing over 84,000 videos of isolated sign productions from 41 deaf ASL signers. The dataset addresse…