Sign Language - Signing Web Sites

Removing the Limitations of Print

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 is showcased at on “ASLpah” website <www.aslpah.ca>.

SignLinking Tools

To simplify the task of creating signed Web pages, the group has also developed an authoring tool, called SignEd. WindowsXP and MacOS versions of the SignEd authoring tool are available for free download on the ASLpah website <http://www.aslpah.ca/I_tools/I1_download/index.php?detected=ok>

Important Note: The SignEd authoring tool is an experimental software program with no tech support or performance guarantees. Please read the distribution agreement before downloading.

How Print Linking Works

In order to duplicate the function of print-based hyperlinks, it is important to understand how they work. In print-based Web pages, an author creates a hyperlink by associating a word or phrase of text (or an image, often containing words) with the Web address (also known as the Universal Resource Indicator, URI) of another Web page. To the reader of the Web page, the hyperlink appears as blue underlined text (or blue outlined image). The user can "go" to the other Web page by clicking their mouse on the blue text, causing the new page to load.

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.

How SignLinking Duplicates Print Linking

The design of signlinking (see figure <http://jan.rcat.utoronto.ca/public/about/figure1.png>) takes into account all of these requirements.

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.