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Both Huawei and Honor are working on two amazing products to help improve the lives of people with disabilities. Honor has the PocketVision app which aims to aid the visually impaired by making the text easier to read.
Huawei has been working hard on their StorySign sign which aims to make learning to read easier for deaf children.
Originally launched earlier this year, the app has been so successful Huawei has continued to improve the range of books available to the app, and now they are finally rolling out an iOS app, as well as expanding the app to feature three new books in American Sign Language (ASL).
Used as the first sign language in the United States, Canada and territories in Africa, Asia and Central America, American Sign Language (ASL) is the world’s most widely used sign language, and marks an important step towards Huawei’s goal of helping to open the world of books to even more deaf children.
Currently, there are 32 million deaf children worldwide, many of whom struggle to learn to read, in the past this often causes children to fall behind in school which has knock-on effects causing them to feel isolated and struggle with other aspects of their life.
As this week marks International Week of the Deaf and today is International Day of Sign Languages and Huawei have also commissioned research that highlights the barrier in the UK between profoundly deaf children and those that are able to hear, in addition to an appetite from the British public to learn sign language. Some really eye-opening stats from the research including:
- 81% of people do not know how to sign in British Sign Language (BSL)
- 82% or people are only able to communicate in it very badly and wished they had learnt it at school
- 74% of British parents surveyed aren’t aware of the difficulties some deaf children experience when learning to read
- 95% of Brits are keen on British Sign Language being added to the national curriculum
StorySign, the free mobile app is available on both Android and iOS, and comes alive with Star, the app’s friendly signing avatar developed in partnership with world-class studio Aardman and input from experts in the deaf community. Star translates a range of popular children’s books into sign language in real-time, creating a seamless reading experience and allowing deaf children to enjoy story time, no matter what.
So far StorySign is available in thirteen languages with a total of 52 new books.
The new books including The Lonely Penguin, Max the Brave, All About Spot and the newest releases, Ten Minutes to Bed: Little Monsters and There’s A Dragon in Your Book have all been added to the United Kingdom StorySign library this year.
StorySign can now be downloaded worldwide for free from Google Play, the Huawei AppGallery and Apple App Store.
For more information on how to get involved, please visit https://www.storysign.com
I am James, a UK-based tech enthusiast and the Editor and Owner of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Passionate about all things technology, my expertise spans from computers and networking to mobile, wearables, and smart home devices.
As a fitness fanatic who loves running and cycling, I also have a keen interest in fitness-related technology, and I take every opportunity to cover this niche on my blog. My diverse interests allow me to bring a unique perspective to tech blogging, merging lifestyle, fitness, and the latest tech trends.
In my academic pursuits, I earned a BSc in Information Systems Design from UCLAN, before advancing my learning with a Master’s Degree in Computing. This advanced study also included Cisco CCNA accreditation, further demonstrating my commitment to understanding and staying ahead of the technology curve.
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