DCLGP aims to build a digital bilingual dictionary (Portuguese Sign Language and European Portuguese) grounded on modern sign language corpora. The dictionary enables users to search by the parameters of Sign Languages and by word, and provides information regarding signs such as etymology, grammatical classifications, and examples of the use. The dictionary uses a feature-based search engine that allows people to form queries for unfamiliar signs by selecting sets of features (hand configurations, articulation locations, movements, palm orientation, and non-manual elements).

Project Details

Title: DCLGP

Date: Jan 1, 2023

Authors: Hugo Nicolau

Keywords: sign language, dictionary

Website: https://community-lgp.pages.dev/

Related Publications

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  • Social Play Between Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Hearing Peers: Learning from Children and School Ecosystems
  • Jing Zhao, Isabel Neto, Michaela Okosi, Paulo Vaz de Carvalho, and Hugo Nicolau. 2026. Social Play Between Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Hearing Peers: Learning from Children and School Ecosystems. Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery. http://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791520
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF] [LIBRARY]

  Social play is an essential pathway for emotional, cognitive, and social development in children. However, Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children often experience barriers to social play, namely in mixed-hearing ability environments (e.g., school playground). In this paper, we conducted interviews with six educators and 19 children with and without hearing loss at a Partially Bilingual School, to better understand their experiences during social play. Moreover, we observed a school playground with 46 children over seven weeks at a Full Bilingual School. Findings show that social play between DHH and hearing children is influenced by school culture, peer culture, and child agency. Importantly, some of these barriers can be (partially) overcome through a supportive bilingual and bicultural environment. We propose the concept of contextualized social play technology, which defines a design space aimed at fostering peer culture and individual agency through contextualization within schools. We also provide design insights to inform the development of future inclusive play technologies.
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  • Digital Technologies for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: a Systematic Review, Critical Reflections, and Future Research Directions
  • Jing Zhao, Isabel Neto, Ana Cristina Pires, Catarina Tomé-Pires, and Hugo Nicolau. 2025. Digital Technologies for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: a Systematic Review, Critical Reflections, and Future Research Directions. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery. http://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3714241
  • [ABSTRACT] [PDF] [LIBRARY]

  Digital technologies in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) have the potential to support the development and well-being of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) children. Yet, there has yet to be a systematic review of the field. A shared understanding of current research is needed to develop a future vision. In this review, we analyzed 42 papers from the ACM Digital Library and the top 20 HCI Conferences and Journals, spanning the past 24 years, to investigate the trends, methods, and the level of inclusion of DHH children. Our review reveals that sign language learning platforms dominate the current technological effort. Moreover, children are not yet fully involved in the design process of these technologies and are mostly considered users and testers.We also capture a gap in integrating Deaf culture and child development in prior research. We conclude by critically examining literature gaps and offering guidance for future research.