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🧏‍♀️🤖 My 2025 LinkedIn Rewind (by Coauthor.studio)



Happy New Year.2025 was the year I kept asking one question:


If AI claims to understand sign language, who is accountable when it fails?


I am not an AI developer or engineer. My role is to evaluate whether accessibility actually works for Deaf and BSL users, especially when AI is introduced into high-risk settings.


This year, I saw real progress.

I also saw serious gaps.


Key moments in 2025:

Started as Accessibility Consultant at PN Inclusion (July 2025)

Achieved AI Skills 4 Accessibility certification (September 2025)

Published a Summary Report: 13 points for ethical sign-language AI

Released an Ethical AI–BSL Checklist for organisations


What I challenged:

In May, I publicly challenged AI companies for:

  • Repeated sign-language errors

  • Lack of transparency

  • Silencing or sidelining the Deaf community's feedback


I raised a warning I called “Digital Milan” — the risk that modern AI repeats the exclusion of sign languages that began in 1880.


Throughout the year, I consistently opposed deploying immature sign-language AI in high-risk settings:

  • Courts

  • Hospitals

  • Classrooms


AI can support accessibility. It must not replace qualified human interpreters where lives, rights, and legal outcomes are at stake.


What I produced:


  • Summary Report on AI & Sign Language Technology

  • Ethical AI–BSL Checklist 

  • A proposed Deaf-led certification and governance framework for sign-language AI (including SignAI™ as a case example)

  • BSL teaching content and public presentations


(Note: SignAI™ is a trademark of its respective owner. My work proposes Deaf-led standards for consideration — not ownership or control.)


One message stayed constant:

“If the Deaf community isn’t leading the work, it’s not accessibility. It’s appropriation.”

My asks for 2026:

  • Deaf-led audits before any sign-language AI procurement

  • Human-in-the-loop for all high-risk communication

  • Pay Deaf contributors — no extractive data practices

  • Transparent processes and genuine community feedback


Read the Summary



If your organisation is building or procuring sign-language AI, let’s talk.

Deaf-led accessibility isn’t optional — it’s the foundation.


Peace, collaboration, and progress for 2026.

 
 
 
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