Dear MEL Topic Readers,
How the sound of sport is being reimagined for deaf fans
Just like the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup, an international sports
event is held every four years for deaf athletes, called The Deaflympics. Last
November, its 25th Summer Games took place in Tokyo, marking the 100th
anniversary of the event. The event featured 21 sports, including athletics,
football, swimming, basketball, cycling, golf, handball, judo, shooting, tennis,
and wrestling. The Deaflympics is also regarded as an important testing
ground for inclusive technologies, where users and providers meet and work
together to enhance sports experiences. One technology that helped the
spectators feel the vibe was onomatopoeia, words that imitate, resemble, or
suggest the natural sounds associated with objects or actions, such as Bang,
Splash, Smash, Click, Beep, or Meow. The AI-driven, visual, and multilingual
sound-recognition technologies were used to help Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH)
viewers experience the stadium atmosphere with onomatopoeia in their languages. Also,
at judo events, spectators who wore special vibration devices felt the players’
movements captured by microphones and sensors in the mat. Now, sound is no
longer just heard, but can be read and felt.
Read the article and learn about inclusive technologies used at the Tokyo
Deaflympics.
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