Suggestions about Sign Language in WCAG 2.1

Hello,

My name is João Vitor, and I work in a brazilian company called Hand Talk.
We provide automatic translation to the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras)
via an avatar called Hugo (the one below) and we believe that Sign Language
should be more valued in this version of the WCAG.

Currently, the Success Criterion 1.2.6, that talks about accessibility in
Sign Language, has a AAA level of conformity, and we believe that it should
be changed to A.

According to this paper
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225469903_Improving_multimodal_web_accessibility_for_deaf_people_Sign_language_interpreter_module>,
"Based on data collected by the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), around
80% of deaf people worldwide have an insufficient education and/or literacy
problems, lower verbal skills and mostly chaotic living conditions [45
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225469903_Improving_multimodal_web_accessibility_for_deaf_people_Sign_language_interpreter_module#pf12>]".
That means that deaf people, especially in countries like Brazil, depend on
Sign Languages to communicate and understand online content. The Sign
Languages are very different than the written languagens, and because of
that, only captions are insufficient to provide real accessibility to deaf
people.

It works just like the Sucess Criterions that talk about captions and
audiodescription, where a specific public needs a different assistive
technology to properly use the internet. So why isn't the Success Criterion
1.2.6 a level A?

I hope you can incorporate this suggestion to the working draft and I make
myself available to further discuss this topic, since this suggestion is
just a summed up argument.

Thank you!


*João Vitor Bogas*
Marketing
55 11 96041-4553
Blog <http://blog.handtalk.me/> | Website <http://www.handtalk.me/> |
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