Video Communication for Deaf People in South Africa

Deaf Community in South Africa  Between and 1.6m users of SASL (South African Sign Language)  Disadvantaged community  Hearing disorder  Poverty  Illiteracy/Computer illiteracy

Video communication  Video communication preferable to text  Text messaging slow/unnatural (5-25wpm)  Spoken/Signed communication ( wpm)  Accessibility?

Video communication  Synchronous  Intelligibility?  ‘Jerky’ Video hindrance to effective communication  Possible?  Cost?  Asynchronous  Cheaper  More robust

Research Questions  Is a gesture interface for asynchronous wireless video communication more usable and intuitive than a standard  (a) keyboard and mouse interface for PC? PC?  (b) keypad interface for cellular phone?

Gesture Interface  Usability?  Intuitive  Seamless

Methodology  SASE (Socially Aware Software Engineering)  Implementations:  PC  Cellular phone (Model? API?)  Visualisation for high-level debugging

Conclusion  Have positive impact on Deaf Community of Cape Town  Case study for SASE model  Contribute to ICT solutions in the developing world