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The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

scientificamerican.com

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Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#11

Post by mabbo »

thepete2 wrote: post #5
mabbo wrote: post #3

Two quick misconceptions to call out for those less familiar with signed languages: 1. ASL is not just English with each word replaced with a sign. It's an incredibly complex language with different grammatical rules, some of which don't have English equivalents. 2. It's incredibly flexible. Many core grammar components will remain consistent, but often if you drive to another city, many words/signs will be different…

This is kind of unrelated, but I wonder if a small amount (say 100 signs or so) of sign language (ASL or local equivalent) wouldn't be useful for hearing people in their day-to-day lives. I'm very interested in sign-language, but language being what it is you can't do it alone ...

They are handy! Especially if one person is on a call and can't talk, or you're trying to be quiet.

"I love you", "Food?", "Tea?" (we're tea drinkers) are commonly used in my home.

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#12

Post by gnuvince »

mabbo wrote: post #3

Two quick misconceptions to call out for those less familiar with signed languages: 1. ASL is not just English with each word replaced with a sign. It's an incredibly complex language with different grammatical rules, some of which don't have English equivalents. 2. It's incredibly flexible. Many core grammar components will remain consistent, but often if you drive to another city, many words/signs will be different…

I didn't know much of anything about ASL, but seeing David Cowan at some press conferences in Georgia made me a bit curious. There's a nice video of him on Youtube[1] where he explains that deaf people's native language is ASL, and not English. That was absolutely flabbergasting to me, because I had always imagine, like you said, that it was just "do this gesture to mean this word and this gesture for this other word".

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd5JGN1jno8

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#13

Post by wittjeff »

thepete2 wrote: post #5
mabbo wrote: post #3

Two quick misconceptions to call out for those less familiar with signed languages: 1. ASL is not just English with each word replaced with a sign. It's an incredibly complex language with different grammatical rules, some of which don't have English equivalents. 2. It's incredibly flexible. Many core grammar components will remain consistent, but often if you drive to another city, many words/signs will be different…

This is kind of unrelated, but I wonder if a small amount (say 100 signs or so) of sign language (ASL or local equivalent) wouldn't be useful for hearing people in their day-to-day lives. I'm very interested in sign-language, but language being what it is you can't do it alone ...

Check out Cued Speech (one-handed phonetic signing). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn4e9V3oigs It's a different modality of the local spoken language, not a separate language like ASL. You can learn it in a weekend. IMO it should be taught to everyone in the 2nd grade to help with phonological awareness, which is helpful for visual literacy. But it'd also be useful in a lot of noisy situations throughout life.

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#14

Post by shawnz »

gambiting wrote: post #9
simion314 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dread the day when Google/Youtube will start blocking accounts based on what their Speech to Text thinks someone is speaking.

They already do. There was the case just the other day where someone explaining chess strategy had their video removed for "racial violence" when talking about.....white and black sides of the chess board. Obviously google knows what was said thanks to the speech to text translation.

It's not confirmed that's actually why agadmator's channel was removed. That was just a theory

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#16

Post by sneak »

Does anyone know of a good web based videoconferencing system that does 1080p or 4K, at close to 30fps? Ideally it wouldn't require some big subscription plan, either.

Meet maxes out at 720p (it's that or 320p) and what seems like a single-digit frame rate. Zoom doesn't seem much better.

I don't know sign language but I have a lot of bandwidth (and am wired) and I'm tired of calls optimized for 1-5mbps wifi. Even calls that are primarily for audio could benefit from higher resolution/framerate video, I feel.

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#17

Post by whoomp12342 »

mercurywells wrote: post #7
bombcar wrote: post #2

Microsoft Teams supports live subtitles - I've not tried it but it looks like it could be interesting. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-live-captions...

English is not always the preferred language. An user of ASL may not necessarily be as proficent in English. The government version of Teams still does not have live subtitles last I checked.

I am suprised that Teams does not support multiple langauges

Re: The Covid Zoom Boom Is Reshaping Sign Language

#19

Post by cblconfederate »

Those seem like reasonable adaptations, but i think Zoom has missed an opportunity here, we all need some kind of sign language with video calls. Where is my "Yes", "No" button, or other instant ways to communicate common things without having to turn on the mic or type in chat ?
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