Publication:
Signbuddy: from sign language research to scalable co-created solutions
Date
2026
Journal article
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Published version 2.75 MB
Journal
UNIVERSAL ACCESS IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Abstract
This paper presents SignBuddy, the result of ongoing co-created sign language processing research. Mostsign language processing research is performed by hearing, non-signing researchers. Even though co-creation efforts have recently increased, technical research still often fails to mention if (and how) co-creation was involved in the research process. SignBuddy is a co-created research tool developed through apartnership between the Flemish Sign Language Centre, a deaf-led organisation, and Ghent University. While respecting elemental concepts of co-creation
- i.e. (i) defining common goals and (ii) building a formal and sustainable relationship between users/consumers and researchers/developers and respectingthe five lessons in co-creation
- the platform successfully supported the development of the first fully scalable sign-to-text dictionary search system, built into the Flemish Sign Language-Dutch onlinedictionary. SignBuddy functions as a crowdsourcing interface for in-the-wild collection of modelevaluation data, gathering example queries for quantitative performance analysis and user feedback forqualitative assessment. This human evaluation allows us to shape the application based on the end-users'needs. Addressing the need for models that support large dictionaries (over ten thousand signs), we propose a scalable one-shot sign language recognition method and achieve state-of-the-art results. Beyond the co-created application itself, this work provides insights into the co-creation process
- clarifying roles, shared goals, and responsibilities
- and offers conclusions to guide future co-created sign language processing research.