Android App for Improvising Sign Language Communication in English and Hausa

Abstract

Deaf and dumb persons are facing great challenges communicating with people in society despite the fact that they are part of the society and are enrolled in the normal school system where teaching and learning take place using spoken language. This
challenge calls for the need to address the problem of communication through the use of mobile technology. Developing a mobile app to enhance learning and communication is of great importance and thus the focus of this paper. Obviously most of the applications available were developed using foreign languages which is not easy to use. In this paper, we introduce the Simple
Sign Language Translator Application (SSLATA) that will help people to learn and master sign language. The introduced application will translate words from sign language to English or Hausa languages, text to speech to sign, speech to text to sign
and vice-visa. The SSLATA through its user-friendly interface will enable users to interact with one another via either spoken
language or sign language. Constructive research approach and an agile model were adopted for the study. Android Studio, SQLite and Java were the environment and language used in developing the app. The application runs on android operating system devices.