After several years of work, Mission San Jose High School senior Krisa Desai has earned her Girl Scout Gold Award for her work for a cause dear to her heart: bridging the communication gap between the deaf and hearing communities.
Her platform, an iPhone application called ASL Helper, provides a platform for people who are not familiar with ASL to learn fundamental hand signals from trained professionals.
Her inspiration for her project originated a few years ago, when her older brother was diagnosed with being hard of hearing, which prompted her family to learn ASL. Desai’s interest in helping the California School of the Deaf (CSD) Fremont was sparked after seeing a post by a teacher at CSD who was interested in bringing more awareness to the Deaf community. When she attended fundraising events for the program, she became aware of the communication barriers that Deaf people had faced in public areas.
“I knew that I wanted to dedicate my Gold Award to working with them to bridge some of the barriers that they face in public areas,” Desai said. “After a lot of brainstorming, I eventually worked with my mentor, Jennifer, to build an application centered on ASL.”
Working closely with Jennifer, Desai gained insight into the necessary signs needed for her application and identified which signs were accurate.
However, when designing her application, Desai faced several complications. “Originally, my mentor and I wanted this project to be focused on placing signs with simple ASL in parks around Fremont so that we could have more inclusivity for Deaf children,” Desai said. “However, the city rejected this idea and said that even if they wanted to, it would take years to be able to put up even a single sign.”
Ultimately, this encouraged her to create her application, ASL Helper, which she advertised by placing QR codes across the city. Although her application had minor technical issues, including system errors and receiving approval from the App Store, it was successfully launched and is available for iPhone users to download.
Desai explains that accessibility was one of the driving motives. “I designed my app for anyone to use, even kids. The way that it works is that the user can search up any word or phrase in the search query, and they will instantly see a video of an ASL creator showing how to sign it.”
Desai differentiated her project from current ASL learning tools by providing an instantaneous platform to help people communicate with the Deaf community in the spur-of-the-moment. Her algorithm is tailored to highlight certain Deaf ASL creators while filtering certain videos to ensure that the hand signals are representative of their translation.
By incorporating a variety of immersive features, including a save for later option and flash card practice activities using basic ASL signs, her application aims to engage users while ensuring that they are properly informed about signaling practices.
Desai is currently working to expand her audience by partnering with local clubs and reaching out to creators of ASL community-oriented applications. She hopes that her project continues to have a lasting impact on the community for years to follow.
“I hope that people are able to use the app to learn ASL the moment they need it, and eventually start picking up more and more ASL,” Desai said. “We can’t force people to learn a new language, but when they have an incentive, curiosity will drive them to take action.”
