Web-content's syndication in sign language

Abstract

Web content syndication is the process by which website material is made available to multiple other sites through a "push" technology. Most commonly, it consists of making web feeds available from a site in order to supply other people with latest news, or summaries or update of new web site content. Syndication feeds are generated using one of the two most common formats RSS and Atom. RSS and Atom represent a way to gather updated web content and broadcast or receive it regularly. Instead of daily consulting news sites, podcasts, blogs and other sources of information, internet's users can subscribe to feeds with an RSS Reader which check automatically updates and display it on the user's screen. Thanks to the efficiency and ease of access to information, demonstrated by this technology, RSS feeds become more and more deployed on websites and implemented on web browsers and email clients. Moreover, RSS become one of the main tools of broadcasting information. However, until now deaf are still deprived of this technology. The reason is that all web contents are syndicated in textual format, which is not convenient to the community of deaf that represents a majority of illiterate people, particularly those in developing countries. In this context, our contribution resides on the specification of an approach of web-content's syndication in sign language. We recommend adapting RSS feeds in order to make it accessible to deaf people and suggest adding to the list of languages accepted by the RSS specification new list of languages including sign languages. We propose also describing sign language sentences using specific textual description, which can be played by a virtual character.