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In honour of the International Day of Sign Languages (September 23) leading Global Technology company Huawei extends its StorySign campaign to improve storytime for Deaf children in Ireland.

At a day of storytelling and activities with Karen Koster at Dublin Zoo, Huawei reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Ireland’s Deaf community. The leading technology company announced further investment in StorySign, a free app developed to bring the joy of story time to Deaf children, with the addition of four new books to the StorySign Library and the launch of the app on iOS, making it available to more families with Deaf children, regardless of which smartphone they own.

Pioneered by Huawei, the app has been downloaded over 40,000 times since its launch in December 2018, creating an authentic reading experience that truly helps enrich story time for Deaf children and their parents. 

Byron Maxi, Huawei Ireland’s Country Director said, “At Huawei, we believe that when you bring together human imagination with the power of our Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, we can do something for the greater good.”

“Huawei has worked closely with the Irish Deaf Society throughout the StorySign campaign to raise awareness of Deaf literacy issues and develop the app as a long-term resource that grows over time and continues to benefit the Deaf community in Ireland.”

Commenting on why StorySign can now be used on any smartphone Walter Ji, President of Huawei’s Western Europe Consumer Business Group, said: “At Huawei, we want to use our technology to make the world a better place – no matter where you live or what smartphone you use – whether it’s Android or iOS.

34 percent of the people who have downloaded the free StorySign app have become daily active users, which reinforces our commitment to helping more deaf children learn to read and makes us proud to continue developing and expanding StorySign.”

John Sherwin, CEO Irish Deaf Society commented further, “Education tools that enhance the use of Irish Sign Language at home are vital when tackling early development of language, cognition and literacy. 

“The Irish Deaf Society are proud to support Huawei with its long-term vision to help open the world of books to Deaf children through StorySign. The expansion of the StorySign library, a new language and wider availability mark an important step towards helping Deaf children enjoy story time.”

At Sunday’s event at Dublin Zoo families were treated to special performances by the Cabra Deaf Choir. The children from the choir who attend the Holy Family School for the Deaf in Cabra, Dublin have benefited from the StorySign app and experienced first-hand the unique experience it affords them to enjoy story time. 

At the event Huawei Ireland also premiered a new short film directed by Oscar winning director Chis Overton, bringing StorySign to life with a local Dublin family with two deaf children, Bobby and Sophia. https://consumer.huawei.com/ie/campaign/storysign/storysignfamilies/

StorySign, the free mobile app is available on both Android and iOS, and comes alive with Star, the app’s friendly signing avatar developed in partnership with world-class studio Aardman and input from experts in the deaf community. Star translates a range of popular children’s books into sign language in real-time, creating a seamless reading experience and allowing deaf children to enjoy story time, no matter what.

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He sees it, he likes it, he wants it, he GETS IT. America's Next Top Model icon Nyle DiMarco, who is also an avid activist for the ASL community, has created his own version of Ariana Grande's 7 Rings music video in American Sign Language.

AND IT'S AMAZING. With DiMarco's assistance, the video was directed by Jake Wilson, and features a range of models absolutely slayin' the game to Ariana's number one hit song, alongside closed captions.

DiMarco was the second male winner and first winner who is hard of hearing to be crowned America's Next Top Model. He's been a public advocate for closed-captioning videos for the deaf community ever since.

He asked Grande herself via Twitter to request that her thank u, next video be available with closed captioning for the “466 million people with hearing loss” who want to view the art too.

"Deaf here and we do enjoy your music," Nyle added. He has been campaigning for representation for years, and has achieved some major milestones while he's at it.

He also reached out to Vevo, writing, "You earn more than $650 million per year and can't even add captions to Ariana Grande's thank u, next video."

"There ARE closed caption service that will cost you ONLY six dollars (or less) to instantly appeal to a wider audience," he added.

"There are 466 million people with hearing loss, thank u, next."

YAS HENNY. He's right, of course. The deaf community face struggles with music videos daily, with only a handful of major artists providing closed-captions on their video work.

Grande took notice of the criticism, and made sure that when her 7 Rings music video debuted this month, there were lyrics available to read onscreen

DiMarco has now released an ASL version of whole iconic music video, and he's looking INCREDIBLE in a diamanté fishnet top;

Him and his male model pals are killin' it in the video, recreating Ariana's girl power song with American Sign Language to boot. Fair play lads, fair play.

Representation matters, and we all have to play a role in encouraging the fight against albeism.

Nyle continues to break down the barriers for his community, we're so glad Ari took notice.

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