The World Wide Web has changed the way people interact. It has also become an important equalizer of information access for many social sectors. However, for many people, including some sign language users, Web accessing can be difficult. For some, it not only presents another barrier to overcome but has left them without cultural equality. The present article describes a system that allows sign languageâonly Web pages to be created and linked through a video-based technique called signlinking. In two studies, 14 Deaf participants examined two iterations of signlinked Web pages to gauge the usability and learnability of a signing Web page interface. The first study indicated that signing Web pages were usable by sign language users but that some interface features required improvement. The second study showed increased usability for those features; users consequently could navigate sign language information with ease and pleasure.
The development of non-western character encodings has empowered linguistic communities all over the world to create their own on-line Webs. However, in the case of sign languages, which convey meaning by gestures moving in time and space, the static and textual nature of the WWW medium has, until now, continued to prevent the development of on-line Webs by signing linguistic communities. The challenge then is to enable web designers to create on-line, linked Webs based on moving gestures and signs without the need to use static image or text-based equivalents. We have developed a mechanism, signlinks, that facilitates the development of such Webs, without requiring any degree of bilingualism with a written language for the user. Signlinks use a special form of hyperlinking within video material to enable web browsing without written language.
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