A mobile Deaf-to-hearing communication aid for medical diagnosis

Abstract

This paper describes how a deaf to hearing communication aid built for a mobile phone can be used to provide semi-synchronous communication between a Deaf person and a hearing person who cannot sign. Deaf people with access to mobile phones have become accustomed to using Short Messaging Services, to communicate with both hearing and Deaf people. However Most Deaf people have basic literacy levels and hence prefer not to communicate with text, but with South Africa Sign Language. The prototype uses interpreted communication between sign language and English. The mock-up is meant to help a Deaf person convey their medical conditions to a doctor face-to-face in the office. The prototype is made using prerecorded sign language videos for the Deaf person and English text for the hearing doctor. The interaction on the mobile phone is done inside the phone's browser using video streaming, instead of playing the video in a third-party media player. The design goal was to present the system on a mobile phone from the computer-based prototype. This paper takes a look at the background, related systems, the methods, the design and user testing of such a system on a mobile phone; using two prototypes client-server and client only.