A visual ontology-driven interface for a Web sign language dictionary

Sign languages are visual-gestural languages developed mainly in deaf communities; their tempo-spatial nature makes it difficult to write them, yet several transcription systems are available for them. Most sign languages dictionaries interact with their users via a transcriptionbased inteface; thus their users need to be expert of their specific transcription system. The e-LIS dictionary is the first web bidirectional dictionary for Italian sign language-Italian; using the current interface, the dictionary users can define a sign interacting with intuitive iconic images, without knowing the underlying transcription system. Nevertheless the users of the current e-LIS dictionary are assumed to be expert of Italian sign language. The e-LIS ontology, which specifies how to form a sign, was created to allow even the non-experts of Italian sign language to use the dictionary. Here we present a prototype of a visual interface based on the e-LIS ontology for the e-LIS dictionary; the prototype is a query-oriented navigation interface; it was designed following the User Centred Design Methodology, which focuses on the user during the design, development and testing of the system. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.