Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Señas de Sentido, Nicaraguan Sign Language app for deaf children and families

Mon, April 15, 8:00 to 9:30am, Hyatt Regency, Floor: Bay (Level 1), Bayview B

Proposal

Manos Unidas is an international non-profit organization committed to ensuring equal educational and vocational opportunities for deaf children and adults by providing access to sign language and literacy opportunities in Nicaragua. We have collaborated with special education schools in Estelí and Jinotega, and have developed a close partnership with the deaf and hard of hearing community in Nicaragua.

Project Description
Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) is one of the newest languages documented in recent history (Kocab, Senghas, & Snedeker, 2016; Senghas & Coppola, 2011). Since the first sign documentation work in the 1980s, only two sign language dictionaries have been published. The most recent addition to the sign language dictionary was 2017. With this language rapidly expanding, we collaborated with the schools in Jinotega and Estelí to create a smartphone app that will serve as a central hub for this rapidly growing language. This app is quicker and more responsive to the rapid changes and additions to NSL’s vocabulary and grammar. The recent increase in deaf students in secondary school has created an urgent need for specialized signs among students and educational interpreters. This app supports deaf Nicaraguans in contributing new concepts, expanding on new ideas, and providing the opportunity to explain and clarify the reasoning behind the signed word. The app helps parents learn more directly from the local deaf community, rather than learning from hearing second language learners.

The app contains 3 sections: Learn, Quiz, and Dictionary. In the Learn section, lessons are organized into thematic modules (e.g., body, family, colors), and concepts are presented by providing videos of the NSL word, a Spanish translation, and a photo depicting the concept. In the Quiz section, NSL words are presented in video and users are asked to pick the associated Spanish word. In the Dictionary section, signed words can be filtered or searched by the phonetic characteristics of their Spanish translation, or their part of speech. They can also be searched based on the sign phonology, for example, handshapes, movement, or location.

We employed an iterative approach to product design research and development. It provided flexibility and ongoing change that meets the needs of the design. In this collaborative approach to product design, we included a variety of stakeholders (e.g., NSL linguists, deaf individuals, special school teachers, family members) for input.

Through this presentation, we will share the iterative process of app design research and development through collaboration and consultation, including some successes and struggles. We hope to receive input from roundtable participants on what steps in the area of research and training we should take once the app becomes available for public use, especially in countries with limited resources. Also, we seek ideas regarding how to support the deaf community’s own skills in sustaining the technological solution via teaching strategies designed for low-income countries as the app becomes open-sourced. This, in turn, increases the access to sign languages in developing countries and promotes a world in which deaf children have the right to natural sign languages.

Authors