Community-Driven Information Accessibility: Online Sign Language Content Creation within d/Deaf Communities

Title of the Paper

"Community-Driven Information Accessibility: Online Sign Language Content Creation within d/Deaf Communities"

Paper Information

• Subject Area: Information Accessibility, d/Deaf Communities, Sign Language Content Creation
• Keywords: d/Deaf Communities, Information Accessibility, Online Content Creation and Sharing, Sign Language, Accessible Collaboration

Research Background and Issues

• Problems and Challenges:

  1. The d/Deaf community faces significant barriers to accessing information, particularly in mainstream, hearing-centric societies where sign language content is scarce.
  2. Chinese Sign Language (CSL) exhibits numerous variations, has low standardization, and official information primarily uses "Signed Chinese," which is not widely understood by most d/Deaf individuals.
  3. Automated sign language translation technologies are not yet mature for real-world applications, facing challenges such as insufficient datasets and model limitations.

• Research Significance:

  1. Information accessibility is a fundamental human right for the d/Deaf community, and the lack of sign language content creates barriers in education, healthcare, employment, and other societal domains.
  2. Understanding the information practices of d/Deaf communities can provide opportunities for designing new accessible technologies and services.

• Research Motivation and Related Work: This study focuses on the Chinese d/Deaf community, analyzing the current state of sign language content creation and exploring ways to support the growth of online sign language content.

Solution

• Research Methods:

  1. Conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 Chinese d/Deaf participants to explore their online information access, use of sign language content, and the role of community collaboration.
  2. Performed content analysis on 360 online d/Deaf videos mentioned by participants, categorizing the types of content and behaviors of creators.

• Innovations:

  1. Explored community-driven information practices, showcasing how the d/Deaf community collaborates to meet their sign language information needs.
  2. Proposed a community collaboration approach to address the shortcomings of traditional technological solutions, emphasizing the necessity of designing information accessibility technologies for the d/Deaf community.

• Implementation Steps and Techniques:

  1. Data Collection: Conducted interviews in text or sign language and collected video data from social media platforms.
  2. Data Analysis: Used coding and thematic analysis to categorize video content into 11 major types (e.g., news, education, community information).
  3. In-depth Analysis of Challenges: Discussed difficulties such as sign language translation, inconsistent video quality, and negative feedback faced by creators.

Research Results

• Specific Findings:

  1. Identified the critical role of "d/Deaf videos" as sources of information and educational materials.
  2. Identified two main types of creators: individual content creators and d/Deaf-led organizations.
  3. Summarized video content categories, such as news, community information, and sign language teaching.

• Advantages:

  1. Community-driven sign language content better supports linguistic diversity and enhances the autonomy and connectivity of the community.
  2. Supplements gaps in official information, providing new channels for education and crisis communication.

• Experimental and Evaluation Results:

  1. Most videos focused on news (55.67%) but also covered diverse topics such as life skills and warning information.
  2. Video content often lacked proper translation or subtitles, though some creators improved their content based on community feedback.
  3. Creators frequently faced complex challenges in sign language translation, including linguistic diversity and translating unforeseen vocabulary.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. Translation accuracy and content quality remain significant challenges, especially in terminology translation and content proofreading.
  2. Content creators face implicit labor challenges, including translation, discussions, and handling negative feedback.
  3. Future research directions include:
     • Developing collaborative platforms tailored to d/Deaf content creation.
     • Supporting translation and discussion features for diverse sign languages.
     • Providing content quality control and safe online spaces.

Conclusion

This study proposes a novel approach to meeting the d/Deaf community's sign language information needs through community collaboration. It highlights the importance of designing information technologies that support d/Deaf communities and provides clear directions for future research.