andrewducker | Interesting Links for 03-07-2020

How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime: (tags:crime technology phones encryption )
Self-Compassion Can Protect You From Feeling Like A Burden When You Mess Things Up For Your Group: (tags:emotion psychology )
U.S. Customs Seizes 13 Tons Of Hair Weaves From Chinese Prison Camps: (tags:China hair concentration OhForFucksSake )
Coronavirus: Face coverings to become mandatory in Scottish shops.: (tags:Scotland pandemic )
UK gives go-ahead to giant windfarm project off Norfolk coast: (tags:UK windpower )
Florida State University tells employees they can't care for kids while working remotely - Women are deeply unimpressed: (tags:women society work Florida USA pandemic )
New glove translates sign language to speech in real time: (tags:technology speech sign )
Why is every dodgy government contract for £108m?: (tags:UK money government wtf )
Harry Potter fan sites distance themselves from JK Rowling over transgender rights: (tags:LGBT jkrowling fandom transgender harrypotter )

The final three paragraphs of the article are very significant:

However, some deaf researchers have criticised the development.

"The tech is redundant because deaf signers already make extensive use of text-to-speech or text translation software on their phones, or simply write with pen and paper, or even gesture clearly," said Gabrielle Hodge, a deaf researcher from the Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre at University College London, to CNN. "There is nothing wrong with these forms of communication."

"It would be so much easier if tech focused on user-driven and user-centered design in the first instance, rather than dreaming up 'solutions' they think will fix all the problems in the world."

I'd like to draw attention to another article, written in 2017, called Why Sign-Language Gloves Don't Help Deaf People. It's a great read about the audism inherent to "translation glove" pursuits, which began as far back as the 1980's and which pop up again every few years. From centering "accessibility" around the convenience of hearing folks rather than the wants, needs, or convenience of Deaf folks, to fundamentally misunderstanding the grammatical construction of signed languages, there are many reasons why translation gloves end up being self-congratulatory technology instead of anything usable or beneficial for the Deaf community.

Absolutely. It's a neat toy, but there are other things that would help deaf people more.

Interesting Links for 03-07-2020

A note on sign language gloves

Re: A note on sign language gloves