Special Issue: Technology that "helps" Deaf people

Hello Journal of American Sign Languages & Literatures community! Thank you to those of you who contributed to JASLL’s first Special Issue on “Deafening Music: Transcending Sound in Musicking”. We’re preparing to launch our second Special Issue. Here, we confront another topic in need of reclaiming, that of various technologies developed to “help” deaf people communicate more effectively with non-signers. Two examples are the “SignAloud” gloves which are purported to translate signs into speech ( • Video ) and the 3D printed robot which claims it can interpret sign language ( / 2277488722292295 .
Several people have written critiques of these technologies, noting why they are not as feasible as their inventors claim, but also crucially, calling out the lack of involvement of deaf, skilled signers who could consult on such a project.
This special issue calls for abstracts which critically analyze these and other technologies both with respect to their (in)feasibility and also lack of inclusion. Analysis from a variety of disciplines is encouraged, including but not limited to, linguistics, education, interpretation, deaf studies, among others.
As a guide, consider this article from 2017 which tackles one such invention: www.theatlanti....

[@thrivinginamber2642]

After learning sign for four months, I asked someone Deaf at a store where to find an item, and they tried to communicate with me, but I was having over-processing issues from all the new things happening at once, and they borrowed a phone from someone to type their words in text. This made the conversation much clearer, but it removed signing from the conversation entirely. How do new signers gain confidence in signing if we keep pulling out all the fancy tech?