The Missing Link

Books aren't what hooked Harley Hamilton. He's one of those librarians who's quite happy tinkering with computers in the media center. "I'm a tech guy," explains Hamilton. "Work is play when it comes to computers."

As technology specialist for the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, a day school with 220 moderately deaf to profoundly deaf students with multiple handicaps, the 51-year-old Hamilton knows firsthand that technology can be especially crucial. He's seen it open the lines of communication between teachers and students, and he's seen it jump-start literacy. That's why he spends much of his downtime developing electronic tools. It's Hamilton's insatiable quest to help kids become successful readers that led to his latest creation, MySignLink, the first searchable online dictionary to bridge the gap between American Sign Language and the written word. It's largely that resource that has earned Hamilton this year's Grolier Foundation Award for outstanding contributions to children and young people. But calling Hamilton's creation a mere dictionary is like calling Lance Armstrong just another cyclist. MySignLink is the kind of innovation that may very well revolutionize the way deaf children acquire vocabulary and learn to read.

How tough is it for deaf youngsters to become strong readers? Recent statistics show that the average deaf adult reads at a fourth-grade level. In other words, they seldom progress much beyond mastering the basic decoding skills. That may be because 90 percent of deaf kids have hearing parents, and the majority of them never learn American Sign Language. Some caregivers are overwhelmed and don't have the time or resources to master the language. Others believe their children will hear one day with the aid of a cochlear implant in their inner ear. As a result, sign language is never introduced into many households, and deaf kids often begin school at an almost insurmountable disadvantage. "It sets up a situation where these kids struggle the rest of their academic lives," says language arts teacher Jim Roberson, one of Hamilton's colleagues.

Roberson should know. He's seen deaf preschoolers arrive with a vocabulary of less than five words. And most of his middle school students are academically about three years behind their hearing peers, with some reading at only a first- or second-grade level. "They're the ones who find MySignLink most helpful," says Roberson. "It's a resource that can make kids independent."

Unlike conventional dictionaries (which fail to help deaf students who don't know the first letters of many words), MySignLink lets kids cut-and-paste or type an unknown word into its prompt box. Then, with a simple click of the mouse, the free online dictionary (www.aasdweb.com/mysignlink) displays a video clip of a teacher signing the respective word or, in some cases, presents a corresponding image. At the moment, there are 17,000 definitions to choose from—including such schoolyard essentials as pizza and recess. There's even a feature that lets users see a word being signed in slow motion to better grasp the hand movements involved. Compared to other resources that offer the deaf little more than print captions, MySignLink looks like a Maserati parked next to a row of Model Ts. No wonder organizations like the American Library Association (ALA), the National Education Association, and the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf are singing its praises—and they're not the only ones.

"So many people are using this tool," says Lynn Evarts, a library media specialist at Sauk Prairie High School in Prairie du Sac, WI, and a member of ALA's Grolier Award selection committee. When Evarts first saw MySignLink, she immediately recognized its potential to reach a crossover audience. "I have books in my library about sign language," she says. "But computers have that appeal to kids that perhaps books don't. I kept thinking how [MySignLink] would be a draw to the peers of deaf kids and how it would help [hearing kids] learn sign language."

Like many significant discoveries, MySignLink happened almost by accident. Hamilton spent years observing how hard it was for many deaf children to read, partly because they were unable to use phonics to sound out new words. Their limited vocabularies, in turn, naturally hurt their reading comprehension. One day in fall 2002, when Hamilton was surfing the Internet, he stumbled across an online English dictionary—and experienced an epiphany of sorts. He would create a similar online dictionary for sign language. But when he shared his idea, it was met with skepticism. " 'Oh, you can't do that,' I was told," Hamilton says with a laugh. "So of course, I got to work on it."

In no time, he was toiling away on what would become MySignLink, putting together a string of Web pages to make up the dictionary. He received $500 from the school's tech budget to license Michigan State University's bank of video clips featuring educators signing words and got help from Jim Wright, a technology instructor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia who helps educators integrate technology into the classroom.

Wright had seen online dictionaries before, but not for the deaf. "I liked his idea immediately," he says. Wright had a gut feeling that the Internet might offer a wealth of ways to help people with learning disabilities—a big improvement on conventional teaching tools like textbooks. Hamilton and Wright put together a prototype in about a year, and the new resource was tested at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf.

The verdict? "The kids got real excited," says Roberson. "It has an element of fun, and you have to make these things fun because kids will lose interest really quickly. They kept running over to their computers and typing in words."

Hamilton then sent word about the tool to other schools for the deaf and, in September 2003, unveiled MySignLink on the school's Web site. One of the first to try it was Kay Ezzell, a technology resource specialist at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine. Ezzell was so impressed with the "great tool," she recommended it in an electronic newsletter she sends to teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing. As of last month, more than 8,000 online guests had visited MySignLink.

That makes Hamilton realize he got into the right line of work 27 years ago. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Hamilton's interest in working with the deaf was sparked while working as a camp counselor, the summer before his senior year in college. After some deaf youngsters arrived one week, he became fascinated with sign language. "I thought it was an intriguing way of communicating," he recalls. "I tried to find what I could do in the field of helping deaf kids."

His growing interest in technology made him think that a library media center might be a good place to work. Hamilton went on to earn a B.A. in psychology from Jacksonville University, an M.Ed. in deaf education from the University of Arizona at Tucson, a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Georgia State University, and an Ed.S. in media from the University of Georgia in Athens. In 1977, he arrived at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, where he has been ever since—as a teacher, a communications specialist, a media technology specialist, and a coordinator of the communication unit.

As for MySignLink, Hamilton and his colleagues plan to create 20,000 more video clips of words in sign language during the coming year, with an eventual goal of 100,000 definitions. The Grolier Foundation Award comes with $1,000 in prize money, donated by the Grolier Publishing Company, and those funds will help in that endeavor. The school is also seeking a grant to the tune of $100,000. "Hopefully, we'll hit the jackpot, and be able to work on this full time," Hamilton enthuses.

If not, he and his helpers will continue to do what they've always done—work on the resource mostly on their own time. Either way, the results promise to be spectacular.