Why ASR is Important for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Community

Speech recognition and understanding technologies are crucial for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (HOH) community. Automatic speech recognition can help address challenges faced by these communities, such as difficulties in communication due to masking requirements during the pandemic. Deep neural networks can convert audio inputs of spoken language into written text, which is useful for people with hearing loss and those struggling to understand speech through masks or in noisy environments. However, challenges remain, including language barriers between deaf people and hearing people, access to education and employment, and social isolation. Efforts are ongoing to develop technology that can assist the deaf and HOH community, such as converting sign language into written text.