Insights into the complexities of communication and automated sign language translation from the I-ACE Project

Deafness is a recognized disability across Europe with equality in education being a requirement of legislated Accessibility Acts. The I-ACE Project was a European Union Erasmus KA2 project which explored the potential use of an automatic sign language translator in the school education system. In addition to the schools' application, the project constructed a demonstrator system to capture a lot of views from general users through a Porto Metro Station pilot installation and through focus group meetings with the deaf community across Europe. This paper presents one aspect of the findings of this project, that relating to the complexities of communicating with the deaf. The findings are used to review the generic communication model between any two individuals, and, as a consequence, the general communication model for education. One specific update is made to this generic model, that of the addition of technical context. Examples from the pilot study and focus group meetings are used to illustrate why technical context is appropriate and relevant to include. The paper concludes with some general recommendations for educators.