Rybena: a java R&D project boosting the DIGITAL INCLUSION of INDIVIDUALS with Special Needs, Through Mobile Communication.

FINAL REMARKS AND FUTURE WORK

Once the integration stage of the various modules comprising word processing that only send messages in Signal Portuguese is completed, a context recognizer transmitting the complete communication in LIBRAS will be added. At the same time, the team intends to start developing the screen reading and oral system to allow navigation connection of the blind with the cell phone screen. This process requires the definition of a database to be implemented in those new phones.
In addition, a system allowing a hearing individual and a deaf to talk using just one mobile as a voice translator (Portuguese) into signs (LIBRAS) is being developed.
This paper shows partial results regarding the digital inclusion of deaf and blind individuals using mobile phones. In a society where the digital divide exists, regardless of its level of literacy, knowing how to write, read and express ideas through a written code has become a “sign of power”. The deaf as well as those who can hear speak different languages but they can live in the same community as long as a mutual effort of approximation is made through the knowledge of two languages, whether by those who can hear or the deaf.
The results reached so far are promising regarding the possibility of extrapolating such application to others of social relevance such as access of the blind and the deaf to various services using communication via cell phones or the internet. This would enable the proposed LIBRAS virtual teaching on a learning environment supported by cell phones, considering that 149 million Brazilians do not have access to the Web but 35.2 million have cell phones – and this number is growing at a rate of over 150,000 new devices registered every month – and that a new generation of cell phones supporting graphic applications such as the one herein presented is reaching the market.

introduction | content | the project | current situation | final remarks