Re: XAUR and signing avatars clarification request

Hi Wendy,

Just as an FYI, we got some very helpful context on this topic from John 
Paton, who was previously with RNID in the UK.
We realise there is much more to this issue, and further input from you 
would be appreciated, potentially at a future joint meeting.

Suffice to say, we think that video of 'real people' signing either 
audio described or captioned content, or describing object or item 
descriptions seems to be way more preferable than the digital 'signing 
avatar'. We were also wondering if there was a particular pronoun used 
by the community to describe these things?

Thanks in advance

Josh

> Joshue O'Connor <mailto:joconnor@w3.org>
> Wednesday 5 May 2021 12:33
> Hi Wendy,
>
> Regarding your comment that signing avatars are not currently 
> recommended. I've read the WFD recommendation and now better 
> understand the distinction between live and interactive signing with 
> an experienced interpreter, vs the use of an automated signing avatar. 
> I also understand the need for quality parsing and translation via a 
> real person particularly in live situations. I do however see a 
> potential benefit for Deaf and hard of hearing people from the use of 
> signing avatars for pre-recorded, text transformation or 
> non-interactive communication. [1] [2] [3]
>
> I'm wondering if you think this would be acceptable and useful to keep 
> in the XAUR, if we were explicit about its use only in certain 
> contexts? For example,  we can explicitly distinguish between 'live 
> signing' and the use of signing avatars only for pre-recorded and non 
> interactive communication in XR. Would this be agreeable/useful do you 
> think?
>
> I'm also wondering if we changed the user need to  'Audio and Text 
> Transformations' - that could broaden the user need, to cover not just 
> text description but also  non-interactive signing? I'm thinking it 
> could be good. Therefore editing the requirement to now be:
>
> *REQ 10a:* Allow pre-recorded audio or object and item text 
> descriptions to be presented to the user via a signing avatar.
>
> We could also add a note - to say that signing avatars are not deemed 
> suitable replacements for live or interactive communication, we could 
> reference the WFD statement?
>
> Would all this be closer to something useful?
>
> Thoughts welcome - thanks in advance
>
> Josh
>
> [1] Deaf and signing issues: Signing Avatar [XAUR] #168 
> https://github.com/w3c/apa/issues/168
> [2] 
> https://raw.githack.com/w3c/apa/6d5bf713d9d7c65ecda104c213ad47b0e98cfbe1/xaur/index.html#text-description-transformation
> [3] 
> https://wfdeaf.org/news/resources/wfd-wasli-statement-use-signing-avatars/ 
>


-- 
Emerging Web Technology Specialist/Accessibility (WAI/W3C)