The Department of Information Technology (STI) of the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management (MP) signed last Friday (12/18) a technical cooperation agreement for the production of legal terms that will be inserted into the dictionary of signals application of the Suite VLibras tool, with the purpose of expanding the inclusion of deaf people in the virtual world.

The technology was developed by the Digital Video Applications Laboratory (LAViD) of the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) under the Working Groups Program of the Brazilian National Research and Educational Network (RNP), which seeks innovative applications of computer networks and systems distributed together with the academic community.

"The VLibras is a digital inclusion tool and, through the agreement, the dictionary which is part of the tool, once it is expanded, will allow more people accessing the contents of the House of the Representatives, Senate, the government agencies that work with legislative procedures", said the Secretary of Information Technology, Cristiano Heckert.

"With this partnership, we will expand the content, and thereby increase the scope of information, make that legislative political issues reach more and more people, promoting the inclusion, as the power of social and citizen participation”, completed the secretary.

The evolution of the dictionary with legislative terms promotes inclusion for a significant portion of the Brazilian and world population, the deaf. According to the census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) of 2010, there are in Brazil about 9.5 million people with a hearing impairment level, which represents about 5.1% of the population (IBGE 2010).

The BSL translator in Free Software (VLibras) in desktop, mobile and browser plug-ins (Firefox and Chrome) versions is now available for download. The set of applications makes the translation of digital content in various formats such as text, audio and video to BSL, the Brazilian Sign Language.

Project

Tiago Maritan, Professor of the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB) said that the project idea came from the classroom experience, direct contact with a student with hearing impairment: "Our inspiration came from the student Hosana, with hearing impairment, and because of that, we could not communicate with her. Then, we tried to find a solution to solve this problem”, he said.

The experience turned an object of study at the Center for Research and Extension of the Digital Video Applications Laboratory (LAVID) of UFPB, and in recent years it has been expanded through an agreement with the MP, that has invested approximately R$ 1.6 million in the project, benefiting more people with deafness problems.

The researches developed by LAVID are held in partnership with other universities and research institutes. By being an active laboratory in the development area, it also receives funding from partner institutions such as the Brazilian National Research and Educational Network (Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa - RNP), Financier of Studies and Projects (FINEP) and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and now the House of Representatives.

The VLibras project will allow employees to participate in the development of process tools, either by adding new signs, editing existing signs or the entire set of Suite VLibras, making it the most productive development. All the tools are open source and are available in the Public Software Website.

Photo: Gustavo Lima/Câmara dos Deputados

Source: Ministry of Planning, Budgets and Management