Sign Language - SignLinking

For many users of spoken languages with print-based forms, such as English and Japanese, the World Wide Web has become an indispensable tool for work, entertainment and cultural expression in their preferred language. However, for people using true sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL) and Australian Sign Language, the Web currently offers very few opportunities in these languages. The impediment to signing on the Web is due to the fact that sign languages convey meaning by gestures moving in time and space and often lack widely used print-based forms. As a result, these languages do not fit easily into the static, text-based assumptions of most Web technologies.

Hyperlinking Challenge

Attempts have been made to circumvent these limitations by embedding video files showing sign language speakers into Web pages. However, this straightforward approach neglects the mechanism that makes the Web such a powerful communicative tool, the hyperlinks. The hyperlinks, usually shown as blue underlined text in print-based Web pages, enable any Web page to be connected to any other Web. When sign language use on a Web page is limited to a plain video, navigation between pages is usually implemented separately in a print-based language, forcing users to switch back and forth between the two languages. This is not something that is required of visitors to English or Japanese sites. Therefore, while this plain video signed content may be on the Web, it certainly is not of the Web.

SignLinking Is Invented

A recent project by a group of researchers in Canada sought to address this problem. The group, which included researchers from Ryerson University, the University of Toronto, the Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) and marblemedia, developed a technique, called "signlinking," which enables Web pages containing video-based sign language content to be hyperlinked to other Web pages without the necessity of print-based hyperlinks in a second language.

The signlinking technique was showcased on ASLPah.ca.

This may seem simple, however, the role of the text hyperlinks is more complex than just acting as a place that the reader can click on to load the linked page. The blue, underlined text is easy to spot, allowing the reader to quickly scan the page to discover the number of hyperlinks, as well as their order, location, and grouping. This allows readers to get a basic understanding of the purpose of a page without very much reading. As an example, take a look at the pattern of links on the main About.com page versus this page. When the reader is ready to follow a hyperlink they can do so with just one click.

Signlinking begins with a video of a person signing. Since the concepts that are linked unfold over time, it is a period in the video that is linked. When a linked concept is signed, a red icon appears in the upper-left corner of the video. Red was chosen instead of blue to emphasize the "current-ness" links (just as some text-based Web pages change the color of links under the mouse pointer), while blue is reserved to indicate non-current links.

This identifies the hyperlinked concepts, but the video is only able to present one concept at a time as it is being playing. For this reason, the video is supplemented with two navigation mechanisms.

The first navigation mechanism is a "link density bar," which identifies the location and length of each hyperlink in the video as a blue rectangle below the QuickTime video progress bar. A rectangle turns from blue to red when the hyperlink it refers to is currently playing. Clicking on a rectangle cues the video to begin playing at the start of the corresponding hyperlink.

The second mechanism is a series of thumbnail images, one captured by the author from within each hyperlink time interval in the video interval. Each image is highlighted when the corresponding hyperlink occurs in the video. Clicking on the thumbnail image cues the video to begin playing at the start of the corresponding hyperlink. This means that even though a static image of a signer is often ambiguous, the reader can quickly discover the full concept by simply clicking on the image. [p If the user wishes to follow a hyperlink, then they select a navigation button that appears below the thumbnail image.

SignLinking Used With Print

Sometimes an author may want to create a bilingual Web page with both sign language and print-based content. For these situations, the signlinking technique includes two optional text features. The first is an optional text label that can be added below the thumbnail image. The label is a print-based hyperlink to the same URI as the sign-based hyperlink. The second text feature is an optional text content area. How this area is used is left up to the author, but some possibilities include: keywords for search engines, a short description, a full alternate text version, or form controls, if user input is required. The text can include print-based hyperlinks, but only to documents that are already hyperlinked by a signlink.

Potential of SignLinking

Now that a technique is available to produce sign language-based Web pages and an authoring tool is available to greatly simplify the task, the only limit is the author's own creativity. Individuals, organizations and businesses can create pages that communicate, do business, perform research, tell stories, provide services, preserve history, make friends

and with each hyperlink made from one signed Web page to another, the Signed Web will grow.

The development of Signlinking was awarded the American Library Association Grolier Foundation Award for making the greatest contribution to children's literacy in 2004.