18 Jan 2002
Glove lends the deaf a hand
Glove lends the deaf a hand. A 17-year-old high school student has garnered international attention for developing a glove which can translate sign language into text on a small portable screen. I think it’s a really cool concept, but can’t people type faster than signing using the manual alphabet? The real benefit would come from translating ASL (American Sign Language) into text using a glove, but ASL has a very different sentence structure than spoken English. I’m afraid that thoughts would come out sounding like broken English and only reinforce in some people’s minds the inaccurate link between disability and low mental ability. Still, it’s a fascinating experiment.
For a lot of people, ASL is their first language, and English is their second. Typing in English might be more difficult than signing. Perhaps this software can bridge that gap.
bug | 21 Jan 2002