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• Closed ASL Interpreting for Online Videos

  Matthew Seita · 2016 · ASSETS '16: Proceedings of the 18th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

  This paper introduces "closed interpreting"—a concept analogous to closed captions where an ASL interpreter video can be toggled on and customized alongside online video content. The motivation is straightforward but often overlooked: many deaf and hard of hearing people rely on…

  deaf and hard of hearing · American Sign Language · video accessibility · closed interpreting · multimedia accessibility

• Demographic and Experiential Factors Influencing Acceptance of Sign Language Animation by Deaf Users

  Hernisa Kacorri, Matt Huenerfauth, Sarah Ebling, Kasmira Patel, Mackenzie Willard · 2015 · ASSETS '15: Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility

  This paper addresses a critical methodological gap in sign language animation research: the lack of standardized reporting on participant characteristics that may influence evaluation results. Sign language animation technology—which automatically synthesizes signing from…

  deaf · sign language · animation · avatar · ASL

• Evaluating Alternatives for Better Deaf Accessibility to Selected Web-Based Multimedia

  Brent N. Shiver, Rosalee J. Wolfe · 2015 · ASSETS '15: Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility

  This research addresses the accessibility gap created by the proliferation of uncaptioned video content online—a particular problem for deaf adults who use American Sign Language as their primary language and view English as a second language. While television captioning has…

  deaf accessibility · captions · automatic speech recognition · ASR · multimedia accessibility

• Comparing Methods of Displaying Language Feedback for Student Videos of American Sign Language

  Matt Huenerfauth, Elaine Gale, Brian Penly, Mackenzie Willard, Dhananjai Hariharan · 2015 · ASSETS '15: Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility

  This research investigates how to effectively provide feedback to students learning American Sign Language (ASL), specifically comparing different methods of presenting information about errors and correct usage in their signing videos. The work is motivated by an urgent…

  American Sign Language · ASL · deaf education · language learning · video feedback

• ASL CLeaR: STEM Education Tools for Deaf Students

  Jeanne Reis, Erin T. Solovey, Jon Henner, Kathleen Johnson, Robert Hoffmeister · 2015 · ASSETS '15: Proceedings of the 17th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility

  This demonstration paper introduces ASL CLeaR (American Sign Language STEM Concept Learning Resource), a free online educational platform designed to address a critical gap in STEM education for deaf and hard of hearing students. The authors identify a fundamental problem: deaf…

  deaf · hard of hearing · American Sign Language · STEM education · educational technology

• Implementation and Evaluation of Animation Controls Sufficient for Conveying ASL Facial Expressions

  Hernisa Kacorri, Matt Huenerfauth · 2014 · Proceedings of the 16th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers & Accessibility (ASSETS '14)

  This ASSETS 2014 short paper (2 pages) reports an infrastructure contribution to sign-language-animation research: the authors extended an existing virtual human character (Max, on the open-source EMBR animation platform) with a full set of MPEG-4 Facial Action Parameter (FAP)…

  american sign language · sign language animation · signing avatar · deaf and hard of hearing · facial expression

• Comparing Native Signers' Perception of American Sign Language Animations and Videos via Eye Tracking

  Hernisa Kacorri, Allen Harper, Matt Huenerfauth · 2013 · Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper investigates whether eye tracking can serve as an alternative or complementary evaluation method for assessing the quality of synthesized American Sign Language (ASL) animations. Computer-generated ASL animations offer accessibility benefits for deaf individuals with…

  sign language · American Sign Language · animation · eye tracking · deaf accessibility

• A Web-Based Intelligibility Evaluation of Sign Language Video Transmitted at Low Frame Rates and Bitrates

  Jessica J. Tran, Rafael Rodriguez, Eve A. Riskin, Jacob O. Wobbrock · 2013 · Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper evaluates the perceived lower limits of intelligible sign language video for mobile communication, testing how much video quality can be sacrificed while maintaining comprehensibility for ASL users. The ITU-T recommends sign language video be transmitted at 25 fps at…

  sign language · American Sign Language · deaf accessibility · video compression · frame rate

• Effect of Presenting Video as a Baseline During an American Sign Language Animation User Study

  Pengfei Lu, Hernisa Kacorri · 2012 · Proceedings of the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '12)

  This paper investigates a methodological question central to sign language animation research: what type of upper baseline should be used when evaluating synthesized American Sign Language (ASL) animations? The authors laboratory at CUNY had previously conducted multiple studies…

  sign language animation · American Sign Language · user study methodology · evaluation baselines · deaf accessibility

• Evaluating Quality and Comprehension of Real-Time Sign Language Video on Mobile Phones

  Jessica J. Tran, Joy Kim, Jaehong Chon, Eve A. Riskin, Richard E. Ladner, Jacob O. Wobbrock · 2011 · Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2011)

  This paper investigates the relationship between objective video quality metrics (PSNR — peak signal-to-noise ratio), subjective quality preferences, and actual comprehension of American Sign Language (ASL) video transmitted at very low bitrates on mobile phones. At the time of…

  deaf · American Sign Language · video compression · mobile accessibility · video quality

• The Vlogging Phenomena: A Deaf Perspective

  Ellen S. Hibbard, Deb I. Fels · 2011 · The Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS)

  This paper examines how Deaf people use video blogging (vlogging) technology to communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) on mainstream and specialized platforms. The researchers compared vlogging practices on YouTube, a mainstream video-sharing site, and Deafvideo.TV (DVTV),…

  deaf accessibility · sign language · video accessibility · social media · Deaf Culture

• Evaluating Importance of Facial Expression in American Sign Language and Pidgin Signed English Animations

  Matt Huenerfauth, Pengfei Lu, Andrew Rosenberg · 2011 · Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2011)

  This paper presents the first empirical evaluation of the impact of facial expressions on the understandability and perceived quality of American Sign Language (ASL) and Pidgin Signed English (PSE) computer animations. ASL animations have significant accessibility benefits since…

  sign language · sign language animation · deaf accessibility · facial expression · American Sign Language

• Accurate and Accessible Motion-Capture Glove Calibration for Sign Language Data Collection

  Matt Huenerfauth, Pengfei Lu · 2010 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper addresses a critical bottleneck in sign language technology research: the calibration of motion-capture gloves used to record hand movements for ASL animation and recognition systems. Motion-capture data enables the development of sign language animations that can…

  sign language · American Sign Language · deaf accessibility · motion capture · animation

• ASL-STEM Forum: Enabling Sign Language to Grow Through Online Collaboration

  Anna C. Cavender, Daniel S. Otero, Jeffrey P. Bigham, Richard E. Ladner · 2010 · CHI '10: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

  This paper presents the ASL-STEM Forum, the first online video-based collaboration tool designed to help expand American Sign Language (ASL) vocabulary for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The paper addresses a significant educational barrier: ASL…

  American Sign Language · deaf education · STEM accessibility · online collaboration · video forums

• Modeling and Synthesizing Spatially Inflected Verbs for American Sign Language Animations

  Matt Huenerfauth, Pengfei Lu · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper presents a novel computational method for automatically synthesizing animations of American Sign Language (ASL) verbs that undergo spatial inflection — a grammatical process where verb motion paths change based on the 3D locations in space that have been assigned to…

  American Sign Language · sign language animation · deaf accessibility · natural language generation · avatar

• An Evaluation of Video Intelligibility for Novice American Sign Language Learners on a Mobile Device

  Kimberly A. Weaver, Thad Starner, Harley Hamilton · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper investigates what video resolution is necessary for novice signers to learn American Sign Language (ASL) from video on a mobile device. The motivation is deeply practical: approximately 77% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who must learn sign language to…

  American Sign Language · deaf education · mobile learning · video intelligibility · computer-assisted language learning

• A Web-Based User Survey for Evaluating Power Saving Strategies for Deaf Users of MobileASL

  Jessica J. Tran, Tressa W. Johnson, Joy Kim, Rafael Rodriguez, Sheri Yin, Eve A. Riskin, Richard E. Ladner, Jacob O. Wobbrock · 2010 · Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2010)

  This paper presents research on power-saving video compression algorithms for MobileASL, a project enabling real-time, two-way video communication on mobile phones so Deaf people can communicate in American Sign Language. Running video calls drains phone batteries rapidly — only…

  deaf and hard of hearing · sign language · American Sign Language · mobile technology · video compression

• Participation of High School and Undergraduate Students who are Deaf in Research on American Sign Language Animation

  Matt Huenerfauth · 2010 · SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing, Issue 97

  This SIGACCESS newsletter article describes the educational-outreach component of a five-year NSF CAREER Award (#0746556) research project at the Linguistic and Assistive Technologies Laboratory (LATLab) at Queens College, CUNY. The scientific goal of the project is to advance…

  American Sign Language · ASL animation · deaf community · STEM education · research outreach

• Collecting a Motion-Capture Corpus of American Sign Language for Data-Driven Generation Research

  Pengfei Lu, Matt Huenerfauth · 2010 · Proceedings of the NAACL HLT 2010 Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies (SLPAT '10)

  This workshop paper describes the first year of a multi-year project at CUNY to build a motion-capture corpus of American Sign Language (ASL) specifically intended to support data-driven ASL animation and machine-translation research. The authors argue that current ASL animation…

  American Sign Language · ASL animation · motion capture · sign language corpus · deaf accessibility

• A Linguistically Motivated Model for Speed and Pausing in Animations of American Sign Language

  Matt Huenerfauth · 2009 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

  This paper tackles a critical accessibility challenge: many deaf adults in the United States have English reading levels below average 10-year-old hearing students, creating barriers to accessing written web content. Computer-generated animations of American Sign Language (ASL)…

  American Sign Language · sign language animation · deaf accessibility · natural language generation · virtual humans

• Spatial and Temporal Pyramids for Grammatical Expression Recognition of American Sign Language

  Nicholas Michael, Dimitris Metaxas, Carol Neidle · 2009 · Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)

  This paper presents a novel computer vision framework for recognizing grammatical facial expressions and head gestures in American Sign Language (ASL) video. While most sign language recognition research has focused on manual components (hand shapes and movements), this work…

  sign language recognition · American Sign Language · non-manual markers · computer vision · facial expression recognition

• Accessible Motion-Capture Glove Calibration Protocol for Recording Sign Language Data from Deaf Subjects

  Pengfei Lu, Matt Huenerfauth · 2009 · Proceedings of the 11th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '09)

  This paper addresses a critical bottleneck in sign language technology research: the calibration of motion-capture gloves used to record handshape data from deaf signers. Motion-capture gloves like the CyberGlove contain sensors that measure finger joint angles, but they require…

  sign language · motion capture · American Sign Language · deaf users · accessibility technology

• Evaluation of a psycholinguistically motivated timing model for animations of American Sign Language

  Matt Huenerfauth · 2008 · Proceedings of the 10th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '08)

  This paper investigates how psycholinguistic insights about the timing and speed of American Sign Language (ASL) can improve computer-generated sign language animations. The author developed two algorithms — a sign-duration algorithm and a pause-insertion algorithm — grounded in…

  sign language · American Sign Language · animation · natural language generation · deaf accessibility

• Evaluating American Sign Language Generation Through the Participation of Native ASL Signers

  Matt Huenerfauth, Liming Zhao, Erdan Gu, Jan Allbeck · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (Assets '07)

  This paper addresses the challenge of generating animations of American Sign Language (ASL) sentences, focusing specifically on classifier predicates — complex spatial constructions that describe the location, movement, size, and shape of objects. While previous ASL generation…

  sign language generation · American Sign Language · classifier predicates · animation evaluation · natural language generation

• Variable frame rate for low power mobile sign language communication

  Neva Cherniavsky, Anna C. Cavender, Richard E. Ladner, Eve A. Riskin · 2007 · Proceedings of the 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '07)

  This paper from the University of Washington MobileASL team — Neva Cherniavsky, Anna Cavender, Richard Ladner, and Eve Riskin — addresses a then-emerging problem: enabling Deaf people in the United States to hold real-time American Sign Language conversations over the cellular…

  American Sign Language · sign language · fingerspelling · Deaf community · video phone