The recent viral video of students inventing a Filipino sign language (FSL)-to-speech gloves gained praise for its ingenuity, but organizations supporting deaf and hard of hearing people have mixed reactions.
The gloves, which were part of a thesis project by a group of students from Nabua, Camarines Sur, recently gained traction online with many netizens commending the students. In the deaf community, however, people are conflicted on the current state of technologies being created to assist them.
The invention and inventors
The group of students taking up electrical engineering in Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges was first seen in a video uploaded by student Francis Anthony De Guzman. The video has now over 500k views and over 90k reactions on Facebook as of writing.
They also expressed that their project was inspired by the importance of communication in people’s lives.
In the video, they said that “communication plays an important role in our daily lives. It is a medium in which we can share thoughts and convey messages.”
The students also added that their project could lessen the barriers between differently-abled people as it “gives voice to the deaf and speech-impaired people (…) the communication barrier can be lessened, allowing the deaf and speech-impaired to express themselves and give more opportunity to grow in their respective careers.”
Another member of the group then explained the basics and technical details on how their sign language gloves work, stating that there are multiple sensors inside the gloves that will then transmit data via WiFi to a computer to process the gestures into words.
In the post, the group also thanked their professors for teaching them Filipino sign language, as well as advising them throughout their thesis project. The students also dedicated their achievement to a fellow group member, who passed away recently.
Feedback
Organizations that support the deaf and hard of hearing had different perspectives on these kinds of inventions, though.
Gippy Palma, an advocate and founder of the Filipino Sign Language for the Filipino Deaf stated that technology like the FSL-to-speech gloves is always helpful to make the world a better place.
But even though Palma said this, he still expressed concern if the invention would help break the communication barrier.
“We have to see it in use in practical settings to find out,” he said in an interview with the Manila Standard.
When asked whether having more inventions to help the deaf is better than learning sign language, Palma said that nothing would beat learning itself than any mere technology. “The effectiveness of learning the language within the host culture cannot be superseded by an invention or assistive device for communication,” he added.
Palma also expressed that if others would want to help the deaf or hard of hearing community, they should “have a heart for them.”
Representatives from TerpCap Services, a startup company that aims to serve the deaf and hard of hearing communities digitally through sign language interpretation and captioning, also commented on such technology at its current state.
“We’re not comfortable with that (invention), it’s like we lost our natural sign language nature because there’s a lot involved when we sign,” said China Salvo through sign language in a separate interview.
The founders, Jefferson and Sarah Cortez, stated that the video about FSL gloves definitely made a buzz on social media, which helped raise awareness for the deaf communities in the country.
They appreciate the initiative to help and the technology behind it. However, there are still lapses in the technology to cope or keep up with natural sign language, which they said is “continually evolving” as well.
“For the initiative, I’m really amazed talaga, kasi engineering student din ako. On the technical side, I’m really amazed how they built the technology. On the language side naman, malaki pa ‘yung puwedeng i-improve, 'yung potential improvements nu'ng project nila,” said Bryan Pepito, co-founder of TerpCarp Services.
To help further develop these inventions, they said that the best way is to involve both deaf people and interpreters as advisers to address the lapses in the invention process. But, the invention still has its benefits as it helps the hard of hearing people or those who have acquired hearing loss.
Furthermore, EJ Erpelo, who is also deaf, advised not only the inventors but also other students and those aspiring to invent technologies assisting the deaf to instead learn more about FSL, which was recently passed as the national sign language of the Philippines through Republic Act 11106.
Elizabeth Cabida, their director of operations, also recommended that those who would want to understand the deaf should learn sign language before developing such technologies.
“We’re not against developing technology, and if it can be developed well and it helps the deaf, why not? They can work hand-in-hand,” she said.