ACCESSIBILITY AWARENESS

Learn ASL with these Snapchat Lenses

Four AR Lenses that make learning American Sign Language a snap.

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The Deafengers are a team of designers and engineers at Snap Inc. who are deaf or hard of hearing. One of its members, Jennica Pounds, knows the power and pitfalls of trying to connect with others – especially as the mother of non-deaf children.

“My first son was born naturally wired to be highly verbal, and had poor fine motor skills so he unfortunately couldn’t learn sign language,” Pounds says. “As a toddler, he asked his father for a new mother who wasn’t deaf, because he couldn’t understand why I wasn’t able to communicate in the way he knew how to. It has long been a big personal motivator to create a way to help people connect, whether they sign or speak.”

Image description: Colourful illustration of a man and woman facing each other and communicating in sign language. The man is signing the word “my,” while the woman is signing the word “name”.

The Snapchat Lenses that Pounds and her fellow Deafengers have developed to teach the basics of American Sign Language (ASL) leverage three technologies: augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence, and computer vision.

“Hands are emerging as an important paradigm for AR, and no one knows how to use their hands better than the Deaf,” says Pounds. “The Deafengers were formed to ensure the Deaf perspective was taken into account.”

Image description: Colourful illustration of a person signing “I love you” to someone via FaceTime on their iPhone.

Created with the help of the accessibility-focused tech firm SignAll, Snapchat’s ASL Lenses use hand-tracking technology and animation to teach you how to sign letters. They help even total novices grasp the fundamentals of fingerspelling – a skill that will only become more crucial in the years ahead, Pounds says.

“As we start interacting with AR using our hands, we will see people use their hands more to communicate and control new smart devices,” she says. “I hope that hearing people will find that learning ASL fingerspelling can be an enjoyable and engaging experience. We want to make the journey of learning sign language as fun as possible.”

To find the Deafengers’ ASL Lenses, open Snapchat’s camera, tap the magnifying glass icon and search for the Lens by name.

Randomiser Fingerspelling

Video description: An icon appears overlayed on a woman’s forehead, showing different pictures until it stops on a picture of a dragon. The woman then signs the different letters of the word “dragon”, mimicking an animated hand at the bottom of the screen. When the word has been completed, a small dragon appears, flies around the woman’s head, sits on her right shoulder and breathes fire.

Great for: Learning the ASL alphabet at your own pace

How it works: Form the letters shown, one by one, to spell out a word. (No pressure! You can take as long as you like.) After you’ve completed a word, you’ll unlock a fun AR background.

Try this: Tap the shutter button on the bottom of the screen to take a selfie with your background and send it to your buddies.

Fingerspell Username

Video description: A woman signs letters, mimicking an animated hand at the bottom of the screen. The letters spell “Labake”.

Great for: Learning how to spell your name in ASL

How it works: Similar to the Randomiser Fingerspelling Lens above – except you’ll learn the letters in your first name.

Try this: Prefer to sign with your left hand instead of your right (or vice versa)? Switch hands and the Lens will automatically demonstrate with the same one. (This works with all the Lenses here!)

Random Words

Video description: A woman signs letters as they appear to be falling from the top of the screen while an animated hand at the bottom of the screen shows how to sign them. The first batch of letters spell “love” while the second batch spells “cute”.

Great for: Building speed

How it works: Make the ASL sign for the letter shown before the letter falls to the bottom of the screen. Think quick – you have nine seconds!

Try this: Tap the “i” button above the countdown clock and tap View Lens Page to see videos of other Snapchat users learning with this Lens.

ASL Alphabet

Video description: From a short menu, a woman selects the option “Alphabet, Learn handshapes”. An animated hand then appears with the text “copy the handshape”. Letters of the alphabet scroll from left to right at the bottom of the screen, with the hand showing how to sign them. The woman mimics the hand. A tiny star appears every time she does so correctly.

Great for: Taking your skills to the next level

How it works: This Lens includes three activities: Alphabet teaches you A to Z, one letter at a time. Build Words is a race-against-the-clock game to spell out different words. Match Letters tests your ability to recognise ASL letters. (Tap the ASL Menu to access these.)

Try this: In the Alphabet game, tap the randomise button on the lower left to mix up the order of letters the app teaches you.