Tim Scannell, Accessibility Consultant:

Enhancing Access for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing by Focusing on Sign Language, Digital Accessibility, and Information Access for Everyone.

Sign-language AI is often discussed as a single capability, but in practice, it encompasses very different types of tools , each with distinct levels of maturity, risk, and impact. Before funding or adopting any solution, it’s important to be clear about: What type of system is actually being proposed whether it supports one-way translation (e.g. text or speech → signed output) or claims bi-directional translation (signed input ↔ text or speech) What remains human-led ver

A Deaf and Sign Language-Led authority is needed in sign language AI — now. As AI systems involving sign language become more visible, progress alone is no longer enough. What is increasingly missing from the conversation is linguistic authority . Sign languages are not motion systems. They are full languages , dependent on: manual dexterity spatial grammar context culture lived Deaf expertise Without Deaf-led authority, AI risks producing outputs that are technically impr

Recently, I’ve seen growing interest in tools like Sign-Speak and SignGemma — both exploring how AI can better understand sign language, not just display it. 🧠 Sign-Speak focuses on real-time sign-to-text and sign-to-voice translation, giving Deaf users and interpreters more direct ways to communicate.🤖 SignGemma , from Google DeepMind, explores sign language recognition using large-scale AI models. Out there, we already see many providers creating audio-to-text , tex