Say it with signs! On the occasion of the International Week of the Deaf last week, Snapchat wanted to raise awareness among its users.
The application has just unveiled new lenses as well as Bitmojis and stickers to help you learn American Sign Language – a fun way to better understand the issues of the hearing impaired on social networks.
“Using SignAll’s AI and computer vision technology that recognises and translates American Sign Language language, these AR Lenses will inspire Snapchatters to fingerspell their name, as well as other common words like ‘love’, ‘hug’, and ‘smile’,” explained Snapchat.
To develop these special lenses in augmented reality, the social network called on its deaf and hearing-impaired employees. The result is an opportunity to bring more visibility to sign language and the problems encountered by the hard of hearing on social networks.
Jennica Pounds, a software engineer at Snapchat who is deaf, came up with the idea after noticing her son’s difficulties in learning sign language. “I’m passionate about this technology because I truly believe it’s going to break so many applications wide open. It’s tech like this that will help families like mine communicate and grow together,” she said.
In addition to lenses to learn American Sign Language words, users will be able to use Bitmojis with their likeness and stickers to communicate in sign language.
“We want all members of our community to feel as though our products are made for them – and that includes native signers,” outlined Snapchat.
TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and of course Snapchat – the most popular social networks have all developed an automatic captioning feature for videos to make content accessible to more users without discrimination. An inclusive strategy that works. – AFP Relaxnews
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2021/09/28/learn-sign-language-with-snapchat