🚨 #SLE2026 Workshop alert! 🚨 How do Large Language Models reshape linguistics? 🧠🤖 Join the debate about LLMs' impact on linguistic theory, methods and human language! Osnabrück 26-29 August 2026. #LLM #linguistics Full text of our workshop proposal: societaslinguistica.eu/sle2026/wp-c...

Hearing families should stop being told not to use sign language with their deaf children, deaf academic Dr Kate Rowley has said, with there being “no evidence” it impacts speech or literacy.

A new study shared at the British Deaf Association's (BDA) annual conference in Leeds has concluded that investing in British Sign Language (BSL) for deaf children is "likely cost-effective", returning £4 to the economy for every £1 spent.

Thanks to @liamodell.com for covering my presentation on the ethics of the development and use of sign language technologies at the BDA conference in Leeds. And thanks to @bda.org.uk for the invitation! The UK has given me a lot as a deaf scholar over the years - happy to give back in return.

De Meulder's keynote address yesterday at #ICED2025 deeply reinvigorated me. It felt good to see such a powerful talk, one that accurately deciphers our needs as Deaf people and the vital importance of Deaf academic spaces! Thank you again!

My keynote presentation at #ICED2025 yesterday was about the critical importance of deaf academic spaces, presenting #DrDeaf as an example, and the values they entail for broader deaf educational environments. Preprint of the paper: lnkd.in/ecx4bM-D Full keynote presentation: lnkd.in/eE7qrkhY

First conference stop this summer: ICED in Rome, the premier international conference on deaf education. It’s my 3rd ICED, after Maastricht (2005) and Vancouver (2010). Among the approx. 600 participants are 130 deaf participants, including many presenters. Great to see this deaf space at ICED.

I see the "we cured deafness" injection is making the rounds in the UK now. Let's discuss 🧵

Here's a thread about a virtual conference that's actually accessible. How? Because it was designed and executed by disabled people who care about access and know what it takes to build meaningful community. Take notes. 1/11

The events run parallel and take place in Ål, Norway from 7-12 December 2025. There will be joint lectures and activities between the two events, including our now infamous winter afternoon sauna and ice-bathing wellness activity! (We pre-cut the hole in the ice, no worries! 🤣) #drDeaf

The Dr Deaf Winter 2025 Workshops are open! #drDeaf 👉 Phd Deaf for those in or considering a Phd. Join a cohort and make connections that will support you in your doctoral journey! 👉Writing Retreat. Write that academic paper in a deaf-centered space! Register at forms.office.com/e/HLfrV76SXU

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

I just heard there will be at least 130 deaf participants at the next ICED conference in Rome. I went to two before, and I think there were never that many.

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders? That you can build a career on sign language without ever using it.

What a great paper. I miss Twitter (or what it once was), and @jmhenner.bsky.social in it. Thanks to @deafkilljoy.bsky.social and Rachael Gabriel for writing this. Make sure to check the other papers in the special issue in honour of Jon Henner. academic.oup.com/jdsde/articl...

At #DrDeaf we hand out designated Dr Deaf mugs to participants who received a PhD. Congratulations @bevjbuchanan.bsky.social and Paul Simmons on your PhDs - we look forward to handing out many more Dr Deaf mugs in the years to come!

Not to mention following feeds in your areas of interest. The real strength of Bluesky compared to other social networks lies in the ability to *choose your own algorithm*. (Enabling ‘Show samples of your saved feeds in your Following feed’ in preferences also makes for a better experience.) 🦋

“Sensors on your glasses can track biting and chewing speeds to ensure you don’t become too much of a food hoover.” Self-inflicted helicopter parenting for grown-up fools.

New publication out with the late great @jmhenner.bsky.social and @anthrodad.bsky.social The #Deaf Childhood Experiences Scale aims to provide data on deaf life factors with the goal of better understanding... quality of life outcomes among deaf populations. academic.oup.com/jdsde/articl... 1/6

Wat is de huidige impact van AI op de opleiding en het beroep van tolken gebarentaal? trajectum.hu.nl/neemt-ai-het...

@vrtnws.be De ondertitels zijn niet leesbaar op deze manier. Is het mogelijk om meer contrast in te bouwen of de ondertitels in geval van een witte balk onderaan, bovenaan het scherm te plaatsen? Of nog beter, laat kijkers zelf de ondertitels slepen waar ze die willen. Dank! 🙏🏻

This is not a regular workshop so don’t wait until “next time”. 😀 Registration and payment details: forms.office.com/e/tj3L5XQhgi #drDeaf

Topics include approaching academic leadership challenges, running research projects/centers, supervision of students/faculty/researchers. This is an interactive workshop- bring your ideas and learn from others! #drDeaf

#drDeaf has a new workshop- Professor Deaf! Join us in Oslo 2-4 October 2025. The target group are deaf academics in their mid to senior career phase. acadeafic.org/professor-de...

Excited to have this on our platform!

That time of the year again: “please send your complete PPT two months in advance so interpreters have time to prepare”. Unpopular opinion: interpreters rarely prepare that long before a conference #terptax

We have a Professor Deaf Workshop this October and a #drDeaf Winter Writing Retreat in December. Are there enough people considering or in PhD programs who would be interested in a PhD workshop?

#drDeaf had its 7th writing retreat (and 14th event overall) with participants from around Europe, US, Singapore, and Australia. Evaluation comments: energized, motivated, enthusiastic, sharing, refreshed. Join us at our other 2025 events!

Dr Deaf Spring Writing Retreat 2025 Sketchbook #DrDeaf

"Learn Black American Sign Language" new book by Franklin R. Jones and Carolyn McCaskill www.adlibris.com/nb/bok/learn...

Next week is the 7th #DrDeaf Writing Retreat! Looking forward to welcoming a new group of deaf academics and delivering some new workshops on developing critical AI literacy, visual PPTs, co-authoring, and turning a dissertation into a book. acadeafic.org/dr-deaf/

The #DrDeaf team is thrilled to announce the first Professor Deaf workshop! This workshop is aimed at deaf academics post-PhD, working in a university/research setting. It will be held October 2-4, 2025 in Oslo, Norway. More information will follow. For now, if you’re interested: save the date!

It looks like the avatar and the BSL toggle have been removed since I posted. This is what it looked like. The avatar looks human and is based on real footage but what you’re seeing is a synthetic signer - with sign language generated by AI using a database of recorded signs.

In my recent paper "DeafinAI", I discussed the slippery slope of language and access rights in the age of AI. What starts as using AI in low-stakes situations can quickly expand into high-stakes areas such as healthcare. That slope seems even slipperier than I thought. www.nhs.uk/vaccinations...

last thing for the day before I log OFF but i keep thinking about the (bad) argument that genAI is good for disabled people, but ime true accommodations for disability are external. I don't need a tool to make me go faster; I need a society that gives me space to go slower.

5th meeting of deaf researchers in the Netherlands @ Tilburg University. What does it mean to work as a (deaf) researcher in the Netherlands today, and how can we strengthen and grow deaf researcher capacity? Not everyone could attend (yes, our group is bigger — and we really do have three Lisas!).

“In this way and many others generative AI may be more accurately described as degenerative AI; the AI models are degrading and hollowing out the information ecologies upon which they were originally trained.” berlinergazette.de/generative-a...

When ChatGPT started to hit the mainstream, like a lot of people, I tried it out. Not super impressed, but whatever. I did that thing where you ask it to write your bio. Most of what it wrote was hilariously wrong. Whatever. But then?

International Summer School of Sign Language Studies 21-25. July 2025 - Berlin 📌 Topics 📝 Program 👤 Presenters 📥 Call of Papers 👩‍💻 Registration Everything here! www.tlu.ee/en/summer-sc... Feel free to share and comeeeeee! 🏃‍♂️ 💨

Today’s #DeafTech frustration: I called my internet provider via VRS. As often happens now, a bot took over the line to check my internet connection. This usually means restarting the router… which drops the internet and thus the call. And I have to rejoin the queue. 😠

AI systems are built on English – but not the kind most of the world speaks theconversation.com/ai-systems-a...

🚨 New preprint live! AI is reshaping how deaf people communicate and seek access. But is it opening doors, or reinforcing old hierarchies? Too often, interpreting norms shape how sign language AI is designed today. (forthcoming in Language and Law) (thread) arxiv.org/abs/2505.02519

Our #CHI2025 paper „Speculating Deaf Tech: Reimagining Technologies Centering Deaf People“ with @katta.bsky.social and @mdemeulder.bsky.social is finally out! dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/... 🚀 See you on the Eyeth?!

We need strong Deaf presence at #ICED2025 — not just to attend, but to lead. I've been to two previous ICEDs and it was often a stressful experience. This year, organisers are making an effort to do things differently and create a more welcoming space for deaf participants. iced2025.com

Congratulation to the British Deaf Association for this discussion paper on AI and BSL. As far as I know this is the first deaf NGO to have such a discussion paper. Very much needed!

I think this is one of the first NGT avatars I’ve seen that doesn’t feel uncanny or unsettling. Made using mocap without postprocessing by developers at the University of Amsterdam. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FfP...

Our paper won a Best Paper Award at #chi2025 ! It challenges the idea that Deaf tech should only be assistive. It presents alternative narratives that center deaf lives and show why we need Deaf-centred design in tech. @robinxtech.bsky.social @katta.bsky.social programs.sigchi.org/chi/2025/pro...