World Deaf Day: Prof. Floris Roelofsen connects deaf community with science
Today is World Deaf Day 2023. At the UvA we have a designated cross-faculty lab, that researches and develops innovations concerning Dutch sign language: SignLab.
This year, the first-ever SignLab Open House was held, where the deaf community and UvA researchers met and talked about the current innovations. Professor Floris Roelofsen from the Institute of Logic, Language and Computation at LAB42 was present to highlight the need for research on sign language.
“Research into Dutch sign language is important. In the first place for the deaf community or people who want to learn sign language, like interpreters or parents of deaf children. Because the more we learn about Dutch sign language, the better we can create teaching materials.“
Floris experienced first-hand this lack of sign language teaching materials after the birth of his deaf daughter. 95% of deaf children grow up with hearing parents. A lot of parents miss the resources to study sign language, Floris acknowledges. “The consequence is that most deaf children have a limited language input during their first years, which is crucial for their development.”
Floris continues to explain how important sign language research is in order to make technological advancements for signers. “There are many innovations in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which has a lot of promise for the deaf community.”
“There are many innovations in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which has a lot of promise for the deaf community.”
An example of such an innovation is the automatic translation system developed by SignLab for railway travel announcement. This system translates railway travel announcements from Dutch into Dutch sign language. These translations are then signed by an avatar. You can see this avatar in action signing “The train to Utrecht will depart from platform 15.”
Floris hopes to organise another events in the future to further bring the scientific world and deaf community together. Contact SignLab if you want to stay updated or if you are interested in their research.