Ministers have been warned that the use of artificial intelligence to translate British Sign Language could worsen disabled access and spread harmful misinformation.
Deaf Community Excluded from Development
Charities and cross-party MPs have raised significant concerns about the deployment of AI for BSL translation. For many, British Sign Language is a first language, yet they are being brought in to test systems only after development is largely complete. Labour MP Jen Craft, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for BSL, stated that this approach is fundamentally flawed.
"If you don’t talk to the people in the first instance who it’s supposed to be for, it’s really at odds with how we improve disabled access to services," Craft explained. She highlighted a critical example where the NHS had to withdraw an AI-generated BSL video about measles because incorrect grammar rendered the meaning entirely misleading.
"People who speak BSL as a first language were getting inaccurate information which can actually have really dangerous consequences," she added, warning the practice also risks wasting considerable government funds.
Call for Deaf-Led Quality Control
Rebecca Mansell, Chief Executive of the British Deaf Association, acknowledged AI's potential but stressed that quality control by the signing community is non-negotiable. "We can’t allow technology to simplify or distort BSL, or to put people off learning it," she said.
Mansell emphasised that human judgment remains essential, particularly in high-stakes situations. "Without quality control by independent deaf signers, it would be unthinkably risky for a deaf witness in court to rely on a translation avatar to give evidence, or for someone to receive a cancer diagnosis from a computer-generated signer."
She pointed to a new deaf-led framework from Cambridge University's Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy as a model, designed to put deaf signers "in the driving seat, where they belong" for any government spending on AI-BSL projects.
Potential for New Barriers Without Inclusion
Victoria Boelman, Director of Insight and Policy at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), echoed these warnings. "AI has the potential to transform inclusion for British Sign Language users, but without meaningful involvement from BSL users at the very beginning, it risks creating new barriers," she stated.
Boelman highlighted the scale of the community affected, noting that more than 150,000 people in the UK use BSL. This includes 87,000 deaf people, with 21,000 using it as their main language. The danger of incorrect information is especially acute in vital sectors like healthcare, education, and news.
"RNID is working alongside other charities in the sector to make sure AI-driven BSL is developed in a fair, ethical and inclusive way to ensure it benefits BSL users across the UK," she concluded, underscoring the need for robust regulation and community input.
