Lessons in co-creation: the inconvenient truths of inclusive sign language technology development
This work addresses the problem of effective and equitable participation of deaf communities in AI technology development, offering actionable insights for participatory AI with minoritized groups.
The study examined co-creation practices in sign language machine translation projects with deaf communities, identifying five key lessons to improve inclusivity and address challenges like invisible labor and power imbalances.
In the era of AI-driven language technologies, the participation of deaf communities in sign language technology development, often framed as co-creation, is increasingly emphasized. We present a reflexive case study of two Horizon 2020 projects on sign language machine translation (2021- 2023), conducted with a EUD, a European-level deaf-led NGO. Using participant observation, internal documentation, and collaborative analysis among the authors, we interrogate co-creation as both a practice and a discourse. We offer five lessons for making co-creation consequential: 1) recognise and resource deaf partners invisible labor, 2) manage expectations via accessible science communication, 3) crip co-creation by dismantling structural ableism, 4) diversify participatory methods to address co-creation fatigue and intersectionality, and 5) redistribute power through deaf leadership. We contribute an empirically grounded account of how co-creation plays out in multi-partner AI projects, and actionable implications for design that extend to participatory AI with minoritized language and disability communities.