Project Summary

As an official language in the United Kingdom, British Sign Language plays a crucial role in enabling many individuals to access information. Nonetheless, public transport information in British Sign Language remains inaccessible. The project seeks to address this issue by leveraging Luna, a personal digital sign language assistant, in conjunction with existing passenger solutions. By offering passengers on-demand wayfinding, journey information, and onboard announcements in British Sign Language on their devices, the project aims to equip more individuals to travel independently on public transport with confidence. The objective is to enhance accessibility and inclusivity for all members of the community.

Project Achievements

A technical understanding and technical foundations have been laid to provide a system that users can view on their own device to access journey information in either text or sign language. A prototype and different designs were created to validate this from a user’s perspective as well. The project resulted in a close relationship between Signapse and GoMedia, two companies that hadn’t worked together before. A promotional video has been produced to share the vision around the use of sign language in public transport.

Conclusions

Providing a digital service to passenger’s own devices to access journey information, on board announcements and station announcements and have this available in sign language as well is achievable. Limitations around current video rendering can be overcome with clever user interface design and architectural design to provide a good user experience. A live proof of concept is now required to test and enhance the solution to develop a commercial product.

Next Steps

A new funding project is needed to implement a proof of concept in a live environment and test the solution with sign language users. Initial discussions have been made with train operators to explore opportunities for potential funding. Once a proof of concept has been completed the proj ectis ready for commercialisation and can be expanded to support other sign languages (e.g. American Sign Language) and open up export opportunities.