ASL STEM Wiki: Dataset and Benchmark for Interpreting STEM Articles

TL;DR

This paper introduces ASL STEM Wiki, a pioneering dataset of STEM articles in English and ASL, aimed at improving AI tools for STEM education accessibility for deaf students.

Contribution

It provides the first continuous signing dataset focused on STEM, enabling new AI applications to assist DHH students in learning STEM subjects.

Findings

Created a 254-article parallel corpus in English and ASL

Developed models to identify fingerspelled words in ASL

Highlighted the use of fingerspelling in STEM interpretation

Abstract

Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students face significant barriers in accessing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, notably due to the scarcity of STEM resources in signed languages. To help address this, we introduce ASL STEM Wiki: a parallel corpus of 254 Wikipedia articles on STEM topics in English, interpreted into over 300 hours of American Sign Language (ASL). ASL STEM Wiki is the first continuous signing dataset focused on STEM, facilitating the development of AI resources for STEM education in ASL. We identify several use cases of ASL STEM Wiki with human-centered applications. For example, because this dataset highlights the frequent use of fingerspelling for technical concepts, which inhibits DHH students' ability to learn, we develop models to identify fingerspelled words -- which can later be used to query for appropriate ASL signs to suggest to interpreters.