Videoconferência Acessível para Deficientes Auditivos com Avatar de Libras Automático

Abstract

Given the increased use of synchronous conferences in the daily activities of the Brazilian population, various adversities have arisen or been exacerbated through this new but already established means of communication. The lack of accessibility for individuals with some form of hearing impairment is one of the most notable challenges, because this portion of society, according to the census conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in the year 2010, represented approximately 9.7 million people at that time. There are several laws that ensure access to information for deaf individuals, however, professionals qualified for Portuguese to Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) translation are still a scarce group. With this in mind, this work proposes the incorporation of a Libras Avatar for translating spoken Portuguese language into sign language, while also adding the functionality of automatic captions within the Video For Health (V4H) tool. The results obtained from the proposed experiments showed that the understanding of deaf individuals in videoconferences significantly improved when using the developed tool compared to the platforms available on the internet.