Abstract
With over 2.4 million Brazilians experiencing hearing loss, effective communication between deaf individuals and healthcare professionals is crucial but still faces various barriers. Existing studies highlight shortcomings in the availability of interpreters and in the proficiency in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) by healthcare professionals, leading to a dependency on imperfect methods of communication and compromising patient autonomy and care quality. Although the technological advancements are promising, including automatic translation tools, they still have limitations, particularly in the context of medical communication. This paper evaluates three popular Brazilian applications - HandTalk®, Rybená®, and VLibras®- aimed at translating Brazilian Portuguese to Libras, employing both Semiotic Inspection Method (SIM) analysis and evaluation of translation quality in medical contexts. Overall, SIM analysis revealed good communicability, albeit, with occasional breakdowns, while translation evaluations uncovered numerous issues ranging from minor to critical, potentially impacting patient understanding and health. Our findings point to critical deficits in existing translation apps, emphasizing the urgent need for improvements adapted to medical settings and bidirectional translation capabilities. By shedding light on these challenges, our study contributes to the advancement of accessible healthcare for deaf individuals and the development of more effective translation technologies.
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Notes
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- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
Notice that different countries have different sign languages, even if they speak the same oral language [5]. For instance, Libras and other sign languages of Portuguese-speaking countries, e.g. Língua Gestual Portuguesa - LGP are very different.
- 5.
See https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/brazil (Last access January 2024).
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded in part by Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP, grant 01.21.0097.00, reference number 2797/20 ) and SignumWeb Comunicação Inclusiva Ltda, as part of the Project “Captar-Libras: Sistema de Comunicação por vídeos para surdos aplicado ao pré-atendimento médico”. MSM was supported in part by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq) [grant number 310561/2021-3].
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Soares, J.M.G., Carvalho, I.F.d., Bernardino, E.L.A., Marcolino, M.S., Prates, R.O. (2024). An Evaluation of Portuguese to Libras Translator Apps Applied to the Medical Context. In: Antona, M., Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. HCII 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14698. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60884-1_20
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