Abstract
Sign languages (SL) are the first language for most deaf people. Consequently, bidirectional communication among deaf and non-deaf people has always been a challenging issue. Sign language usage has increased due to inclusion policies and general public agreement, which must then become evident in information technologies, in the many facets that comprise sign language understanding and its computational treatment. In this study, we conduct a thorough systematic mapping of translation-enabling technologies for sign languages. This mapping has considered the most recommended guidelines for systematic reviews, i.e., those pertaining software engineering, since there is a need to account for interdisciplinary areas of accessibility, human computer interaction, natural language processing, and education, all of them part of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) computing classification system directly related to software engineering. An ongoing development of a software tool called SYMPLE (SYstematic Mapping and Parallel Loading Engine) facilitated the querying and construction of a base set of candidate studies. A great diversity of topics has been studied over the last 25 years or so, but this systematic mapping allows for comfortable visualization of predominant areas, venues, top authors, and different measures of concentration and dispersion. The systematic review clearly shows a large number of classifications and subclassifications interspersed over time. This is an area of study in which there is much interest, with a basically steady level of scientific publications over the last decade, concentrated mainly in the European continent. The publications by country, nevertheless, usually favor their local sign language.
Highlights
This study arises from the need to have a broad outlook into sign languages (SL) and their treatment by computational means, motivated by a lack of research evidence that provides structure to this area, which is transdisciplinary by nature
In order to achieve a higher level of inclusion, translation systems have been designed between their main users, deaf people, and the rest of the community
Even in widely studied languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL), efforts have been mainly proposed by research centers, notably the CUNY ASL [91,153], or the corpus of the Center for Linguistic Standardization of the Spanish Sign Language (CNLSE corpus) [154]
Summary
This study arises from the need to have a broad outlook into sign languages (SL) and their treatment by computational means, motivated by a lack of research evidence that provides structure to this area, which is transdisciplinary by nature. The importance of the topic led us to formulate this study to understand what the scholar community has contributed in the areas that integrate the processing of sign languages through computers. In order to achieve a higher level of inclusion, translation systems have been designed between their main users, deaf people, and the rest of the community. Their computational treatment, is complex and requires integrating several elements, such as the combination of manual signs with facial gestures, compliance with linguistic precepts, and particularities of the geographical region of the signers. The deaf culture plays a preponderant role in the conceptualization and evaluation of all efforts to generate projects with a broad impact on society
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