I was reading the Appeal-Democrat newspaper over the weekend when my husband showed me this article titled “Researchers making video dictionary for the deaf.” I found the online version here.

The short story: Boston University students are looking to create a sign language resource through the creation of a video dictionary paired with an interactive computer program that would read your sign through a Web cam, then match it up with possible translations. The idea is to create a visual and interactive dictionary of ASL (American Sign Language) for everyone to use.

I sure would like this. Even though I’m a Deaf person and ASL user, there are still signs I don’t know for certain words. Right now, we have DeafVideo.tv and YouTube searches for ASL videos to get some. I wonder how the program is going to get around the dialect variations, for example, East Coast ASL versus West Coast ASL.

I remember my parents carrying a sign language book with them when I was learning how to communicate as a toddler. I rushed around pointing at items both animate and inanimate, and asked for the sign. My mother said that I became visibly frustrated if there wasn’t a sign in the book for what I wanted to know.

I wonder mostly at the impact this will have on people if the project is successful.