Publisher retracts paper claiming sign languages have ‘very limited set of words’ and grammar which is ‘difficult to understand’ (BSL)

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A conference paper which claimed sign languages are used by “the deaf and dumb community” and have a grammatical structure which is “difficult to understand” has been retracted by its publisher.

It comes after The Limping Chicken reported on concerns over the Literature Review on Sign Language Generation – which was penned by researchers from India’s Cummins College of Engineering for Women and published by Springer – back in September.

The abstract of the paper read: “The deaf and dumb community uses sign language to communicate […] Sign languages have a very limited set of words.

“The grammar is difficult to understand. On the contrary, spoken languages across the globe have a rich vocabulary.

“It is difficult for signers to understand a spoken language. There is a need to develop a system that establishes a link between spoken and sign languages.”

The paper went on to advocate for machine translation, saying the technology has broken language barriers by “automating the process of translation”.

“This development is crucial for the deaf community, as it offers a forum for connecting hearing-impaired and hearing people, as well as equal access to information for the hard of hearing community,” it added.

“Deaf and dumb” is widely considered to be offensive to deaf people, while Deaf academics branded the paper’s summary as “terrible”.

Dr Audrey Cameron, a fellow at the University of Edinburgh, said: “This article should not be published. Was it properly peer reviewed? Inappropriate use of sign language and lack of understanding of sign languages.”

Meanwhile Deaf researcher Kate Rowley wrote: “100% false and ignored decades of research into sign languages. Authors clearly haven’t done a comprehensive lit review.

“I’m deeply offended and appalled. This article should be removed immediately.”

This is terrible. 100% false & ignored decades of research into sign languages. Authors clearly haven’t done a comprehensive lit review. I’m deeply offended & appalled. This article shd be removed immediately. https://t.co/wxrHEPyTsi

— Kate Rowley (@katerowley0) September 28, 2022

When approached by The Limping Chicken for comment in September, a Springer Nature spokesperson confirmed they were looking into the conference paper “as a matter of priority” and stressed diversity, equality and inclusion is one of its “highest strategic priorities”.

On Monday, a note was published in place of the paper, stating that it had been retracted by the series editor.

“After publication, concerns were raised regarding the use of inappropriate language and incorrect statements regarding the deaf community and sign language users.

“There was a lack of collaboration between the authors and community described in the article. The authors apologise for any harms caused by these mistakes,” it reads.

The note also added that the paper included materials previously published in two studies from 1994 and 2018, but the authors stated they “did not obtain appropriate permissions” to reuse the figures.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.