Avatar Signing in Examinations

Scottish Qualifications Authority

Mhairi McAlpine

Background

The difficulties that deaf people have in taking examinations are known within SQA

Questions are presented in English, rather than BSL, the first language for many deaf people.

As the grammar of BSL is different to English, some candidates struggle with reading the questions

As we look at providing assessments from itembanks, it becomes more difficult for interpreters to provide a high quality service.

Potential Solutions

Interpreters May not be familiar with specialist vocabulary May not be native signers May not interpret the question in the same way

Video Provision Expensive to produce Expensive to store and download Requires high speed connections

An Avatar Signed Solution?

Advantages over human interpreter Support can be less obtrusive Can provide standard signed support No need to request in advance

Advantages over video Much quicker to download Economy of scale in production

This project…

…is a consortium of SQA, RNID and UEA

…is funded by TLRP and SQA

…will develop a prototype application

Demonstration of software

This is software is just a prototype at the moment, and will require further work should we decide to make it operational, in particular we have identified issues with the lip patterns and the non-manual movements

Trials so far Internal trial with SQA stakeholders

Trial with deaf candidates at Dingwall Academy

Trial with deaf candidates & teachers at Donaldsons College

Trial with deaf adults at Deaf Connections.

Initial Feedback

Technically the signing is not yet good enough to be reliable.

Mixed feelings about the use of avatars

Most would like to see the research continue, but the avatar needs to improve.

Next steps We are currently developing more questions in the avatar system

We are refining the avatar particularly in relation to the lip patterns

We are hoping to do further trials with deaf teenagers and adults over the course of the summer. In particular looking at

Whether the signs we have used are understandable. Whether we have managed to significantly improve the lip patterns.

What the outcomes of an test are using human vs avatar signing.