Sign language in the a11y-Score

Sign language services exist. But to find them, you still too often have to ask around. What is slowly becoming a matter of course for wheelchair accessibility unfortunately does not work for sign language yet: for AI, search engines and statistical analyses, the data on sign language would need to be prepared much better.

We have made an effort to include sign language in the score calculation: with the corresponding tags on the open map platform OpenStreetMap, a place’s score improves if there is place information for deaf people. This mostly text-based information describes the service at a place in more detail.

So many sign language services mean: a region’s score improves.

But to be completely honest: for sign language, this simply doesn’t work as well as for other accessibility features. The solution is more complex than just collecting place data: the underlying problem lies one level deeper.