MIT Solve

Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Solution name.

Sign with Me

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

An application that would help students from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community to communicate with their peers and teachers.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

In the United States alone, one in 8 people is hard of hearing or deaf. Worldwide the numbers are much higher, with over 1.5 billion people who have difficulty hearing due to deafness. These statistics will be seen in classrooms across the world, with 3.9 % amount of students that are deaf in the US. In learning environments, it can be challenging for students with hearing loss to learn and feel comfortable in the classroom, from inclusivity to communication, these things prevent children from reaching their potential. In the United States, most teachers or educators do not know any sign language and do not know how to teach deaf students. This is the issue I am targeting with Sign With Me. My goal is for communication between hard-of-hearing and deaf students to be clear and understandable. My goal is to break the barrier between miscommunication and make it accessible to all.

What is your solution?

Sign With Me is an application with AI that is capable of converting text and spoken words into different types of sign languages in order to facilitate communication between students and teachers. Even though my target audience is education, this app includes other features that make it useful in other ways. For instance, the application would be able to teach hearing users, sign language and it would be able to translate signs into text. This application would be versatile because it could be used in any environment and it would be used by hearing include are ASL (American Sign Language), BANZSL, CSL, LSF, Japanese Sign Language, LSE, and Arabic Sign Language, but in the future, it could be expanded to more sign languages. The app, as said prior, would work with AI technology all made into an app that would work with IOS and Android devices.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

My solution is intended to serve the deaf and hard-of-hearing students by looking at the issues they face and looking for ways to improve the miscommunication between students and teachers. This would attempt to break a barrier making schools worldwide more inclusive while teaching others sign language. We are educating and helping not just students and teachers but everyone in order to break boundaries. This could easily evolve and become something bigger than this.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

We have skills in design, app prototypes, and AI Technology. Our team is not that capable of delivering this solution on our own. Since I am working on my own I have limited experience when it comes to certain groups and knowledge. I am not deaf or hard of hearing but I strongly believe that all teachers should be able to understand and communicate with their students. That no student should feel lost in a classroom because of a language barrier. I have felt a similar way prior but I don’t have any personal knowledge of this challenge. All that I am basing myself on is research is done for a while now and my attempt at understanding and helping others. I look forward to being able to test this out and listen to what the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community think about this.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

I am basing myself mostly on research that I have done, whereas it was on issues that deaf students commonly face and how teachers feel that they are unable to contribute/help teach these students. I looked and found applications similar to the one I am suggesting and I am trying to make them accessible all around the world. I have done research on the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and even started a prototype but I have been unable to contact potential users or worked with an organization related. I cannot relate to this issue on a personal level but I am able to understand where the educational system goes wrong and Sign With Me is an attempt at improving this situacion.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving learning opportunities and outcomes for learners across their lifetimes, from early childhood on (Learning)

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team located?

Panama City, Panamá

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Karol Jimenez Velazquez