Breaking Barriers with Sign Language Translation

This podcast is also available with international sign language and closed captions on YouTube. https://youtu.be/vrvoiYNRpts We live in an Uber digital world, and being able to access online information is an important part of life. Unfortunately, this isn’t always accessible for minority communities, such as the deaf and hard of hearing. Today we learn about the challenges this community faces in the digital world and barriers that exist in sign language translation. We hear from experts who have been in the SignON Project, which is a European project aimed at overcoming these issues and creating a more accessible online experience. Our guests today are Dr. Dimitar Shterionov, Assistant Professor in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence at Tilburg University, who was scientific lead on the project, and Davy Van Landuyt, Project Officer with the European Union of the Deaf and an end user of the project as a deaf person. We are also delighted to be joined by interpreter Romy O’Callaghan. This podcast has been published in both audio and video format. For video format with sign language please click here. THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT ● The unique task of developing AI-powered technology for sign language translation ● Challenges faced by the deaf community in accessing online information ● How the SignON project is tackling these issues with new technology ● Importance of co-creation and involving the deaf and hard of hearing community ● Addressing data availability and quality before launching to the public GUEST DETAILS Dr. Dimitar Shterionov is Assistant Professor in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence at Tilburg University, The Netherlands (scientific lead). Between January and July 2020 he worked as an assistant professor in Computing the School of Computing, DCU. Prior to that (2017 - 2019) he worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the ADAPT centre, DCU. He holds a PhD in computer science engineering from KULeuven, Belgium. He was the scientific lead of the EU-funded project on translation of sign and oral languages: SignON with Professor Andy Way of the ADAPT Centre. Davy Van Landuyt is Project Officer with the European Union of the Deaf. Davy is a deaf Belgian with roots in the social-cultural movement and association work in the deaf community, going through all possible layers from the local level to the European level. Since 2021, he has worked as Project Officer for the European Union of the Deaf. Outside of his commitments in the deaf community, Davy is also active in the area of localization, specifically videogame and software localization in the Dutch language. MORE INFORMATION SignON is a European funded Horizon 2020 project that started in January 2021 and ran until December 2023, with the objective of addressing the communication gap between users of spoken languages and Deaf sign language users. https://signon-project.eu/about-signon/the-signon-project/ Adapt Radio is produced by DustPod.io for the Adapt Centre For more information about ADAPT visit www.adaptcentre.ie/