A mean for communication between deaf and hearing pairs in inclusive educational settings: the Sessai app
Soraia Silva Prietch, Emanuel José dos Santos, Lucia Vilela Leite Filgueiras · 2015 · Proceedings of the 12th International Web for All Conference (W4A) · doi:10.1145/2745555.2746677
Summary
This extended abstract presents Sessai, an Android application designed to facilitate communication between Deaf or Hard of Hearing (D/HH) students and their hearing peers and teachers in inclusive classroom settings in Brazil. The app uses a WhatsApp-inspired chat interface where hearing users' speech is captured via Google Speech API and automatically transcribed into Brazilian Portuguese text, while D/HH users can type their contributions. All exchanges are managed through an Openfire Real Time Collaboration server that registers and stores chat sessions, creating what the authors call "virtual face-to-face classes" — participants are physically present together but classroom discussions are preserved as text. The paper takes a socio-cultural rather than clinical-pathological perspective on deafness, emphasizing that D/HH individuals do not need to be "fixed" but rather need communication alternatives they can choose freely. The authors identify four potential user groups: D/HH individuals who do not use Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), hearing individuals who do not know sign language, D/HH individuals who lack interpreter access, and anyone learning a written language as a second language.
Key findings
The design addresses six specific educational barriers identified in prior research: difficulty monitoring simultaneous classroom activities, embarrassment about using sign language to ask questions, lack of interaction with hearing classmates during group work, faulty note-taking, inability to review class content later, and insufficient availability of qualified interpreters. A key design decision is that speech-mode transcriptions are not automatically sent — users can correct misspellings and add punctuation before sharing, preserving accuracy and user control. An initial experiment with 16 D/HH participants in a controlled environment showed positive acceptance of the technology, though the authors note the need for further evaluation in real classroom settings. The app was inspired by WhatsApp's familiar interface but differs fundamentally in converting speech to text rather than sending audio files, making spoken content accessible as written text.
Relevance
Sessai addresses a practical gap in inclusive education: the shortage of sign language interpreters in Brazilian public schools and the social isolation D/HH students can experience in mainstream classrooms. The app's approach of leveraging familiar messaging interfaces (WhatsApp) for assistive purposes is a pragmatic design strategy that lowers the learning curve for all users. The socio-cultural framing is noteworthy — rather than positioning the technology as compensating for a deficit, the authors frame it as expanding communication choices. For accessibility practitioners, the paper illustrates how speech-to-text technology can be repurposed as a real-time classroom communication tool, creating a persistent text record that also supports later review. The work highlights the global challenge of interpreter shortages and the potential for mobile technology to partially bridge communication gaps in educational settings.
Tags: deaf and hard of hearing · sign language · inclusive education · mobile application · assistive technology · speech-to-text · real-time communication · Brazilian Sign Language