Designing health care applications for the deaf

This paper addresses the topic of the inclusion of deaf people in the health care context. It discusses the results of recent researches developed in the design of an application for the automatic translation from the Italian to the Italian Sign Language of the deaf. The system allows the translation and visualization of the signs through a virtual avatar with the aim of improving the service quality and the accessibility of healthcare structures. This work proposes a system under development to be fully portable as a support of the ICT infrastructure or as a web service in pervasive health applications.