About This App

Problem Statement

Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) is an essential skill for communicating with the Deaf community in Singapore. However, unlike traditional languages, SgSL lacks robust online translation tools for new learners.

People who wish to learn SgSL online—whether for personal, educational, or professional reasons—often find it challenging to access resources that are quick and intuitive to learn from. Most available resources focus on archiving signs rather than making them accessible to beginners, and the majority of them are offline or geared towards helping experienced learners refine their skills.

This lack of convenient, centralized tools creates artificial barriers for those eager to learn SgSL, reducing its adoption rate. As a result, many individuals struggle to communicate effectively with the Deaf community, inadvertently limiting their opportunities for connection and mutual understanding, and ultimately impacting the well-being of the Deaf community.

How the App Works

This web application is designed to make learning SgSL easier and more accessible:

1. Enter a Phrase: Type any phrase you want to learn in the input field.
2. Search for Signs: The app tokenizes the input into individual words and retrieves the corresponding sign language demonstrations in the form of GIFs.
3. Learn Through Visuals: For each word in your input, the app displays a GIF showcasing how the sign is performed.

The app leverages existing sign banks to present visual learning tools in an intuitive and beginner-friendly format, helping users take their first steps toward mastering SgSL.

Credits

We extend our deepest gratitude to the creators and maintainers of the following resources, whose work forms the foundation of this app:

• Singapore Sign Language GIFs: Sourced from the SgSL Sign Bank by NTU.
• American Sign Language GIFs: Sourced from Lifeprint.com.

A heartfelt thanks to the instructors and teaching assistants at TechUp (thanks Edwin for taking 2 long office hours to sort out the code with me), whose guidance and support were invaluable in bringing this project to life.

An informal thank you to all the resources available online to help craft and add functionality to this web application as well. It was impressively and stunningly simple with the help of AI tools like ChatGPT.

This app was created with the hope of fostering better communication and understanding between the hearing and Deaf communities in Singapore.