Txoj Kev Ntsiag To Hais Lus: Tsim Los Rau Lub Sijhawm Nkag Mus, Tseem Tsis Tau Rau Lub Sijhawm Ua Tsis Tiav

7 Lub Kaum Hli 2026 · Heather M. Grizzle, Novara Consulting Group · Ntaub ntawv ua haujlwm, tseem tos Silence Speaks teb

*Ib yam khoom thauj mus los tsim los ntawm kev txhawj xeeb tiag tiag rau lub sijhawm ib tug neeg caij tsheb Deaf xav tau, tiamsis tsis muaj kev txhawj xeeb rau lub sijhawm nws ua yuam kev*

Yuav ua li cas tsim tau daim ntawv teev no

Daim ntawv teev no tsuas yog nyob ntawm qhov Silence Speaks thiab lwm tus tau luam tawm, raws li tau nrhiav pom thaum 7 Lub Kaum Hli 2026: lub tuam txhab lub nplooj ntawv hauv tsev, cov kev daws teeb meem, kev thauj mus los, txog peb, thiab cov nplooj ntawv xov xwm nrog nws txoj cai ntiag tug ntawm silencespeaks.io; Companies House cov ntaub ntawv teev npe; thiab cov xov xwm los ntawm Wired, MultiLingual, Positive News thiab lwm tus, qee qhov lub tuam txhab rov luam tawm hauv nws tus kheej lub vev xaib. Nws hloov kho NCG qhov Snapshot ntawm pej xeem pov thawj hnub tim 1 Lub Yim Hli 2026. Ua ntej luam tawm, NCG tau xa xya lo lus nug rau lub tuam txhab sau ua ntawv, thiab nws cov lus teb yuav luam tawm ntawm no tag nrho. Qhov twg uas hais tias tsis pom, txhais tau tias tsis pom nyob rau qhov chaw tau tshawb nrhiav rau hnub ntawd, tsis yog tias nws tsis muaj.

Plaub Vib Nas This Saum Lub Platform

Ib tug poj niam Deaf tab tom sawv saum ib lub platform hauv London thaum lub tseev nias rov qab thiab zaj uas nws tabtom tos ploj mus. Muaj ib tsab xov xwm tabtom tshaj tawm. Nws tsis hnov. Ntawm ib sab ntawm lub tseev platform muaj ib qho QR code, thiab nws scan nws. Ib lub nplooj ntawv web qhib tsis thov kom nws download dab tsi los yog tsim ib tug account. Nws twb paub lawm tias nws nyob rau lub chaw nres tsheb twg thiab tias nws siv lus teem ntawv tes British Sign Language. Ib pliag tom qab ib tug neeg teev ntawv tes digital hauv nws lub xov tooj qhia nws tias lub tsheb ciav hlau twb tau tsiv mus rau lwm lub platform lawm.

Nws tsis yog ib tug neeg tiag tiag. Nws yog ib tug sau ua ke, tsim los ntawm Silence Speaks piav qhia txog nws cov khoom Transit Assist, thiab nws nyob ntawm no vim tias cov khoom no tau tsim tseeb los ntawm cov neeg uas xav txog nws tiag tiag. Qhov uas daim ntawv teev no nug yog lo lus nug uas cov nplooj ntawv ntawm cov khoom no tsis teb: muaj dab tsi tshwm sim rau nws thaum tus neeg teev ntawv tes ua yuam kev.

Ib qhov chaw nkag los tsim los ntawm cov neeg uas totaub txoj kev teeb meem

Silence Speaks Ltd yog ib lub tuam txhab British, tau tsim thaum Lub Kaum Ob Hlis 2021 ua Kinesics Meets Ltd thiab hloov npe thaum Lub Ob Hlis 2025^[1]. Nws tus tsim thiab thawj coj yog Pavan Madduru, yog ib tug thawj coj AI yav dhau los ntawm Vodafone^[11]. Nws cov khoom muab lus sau, lus hais, thiab yeeb yaj kiab hloov ua lus teem ntawv tes los ntawm ib tug avatar, nyob rau hauv hom duab tiag tiag los yog animated, thiab nws lub nplooj ntawv hauv tsev muaj British, Irish, Polish, American, thiab Indian sign languages, thiab tseem yuav muaj ntau tuaj^[2]. Nws muab lub avatar no muag rau cuaj lub kev lag luam nyob rau hauv lub npe khoom sib txawv, txij li Transit Assist rau kev thauj mus los mus txog Care Connect rau kev kho mob, Secure Sign rau kev lag luam nyiaj txiag thiab Class Connect, uas cog lus tias yuav hloov “cov khoom kawm, kev sim ntawv, thiab cov ntaub ntawv tseem ceeb ua lus teem ntawv tes”^[3].

Cov khoom thauj mus los yog qhov uas cov qauv tsim tau tshwm sim tshaj plaws. Ib tug neeg caij tsheb scan ib qho QR code “nyob rau ntawm txhua lub chaw nres tsheb los yog saum lub tsheb; tsis tas yuav muaj app.” Lub web app “qhib tam sim, tus kheej paub qhov chaw koj nyob thiab lus teem ntawv tes koj nyiam,” thiab muab cov kev hloov ntawm platform, kev ceeb toom thaum muaj kev cuam tshuam, thiab kev taw qhia txoj kev “tsis pub dhau ob peb vib nas this tom qab cov lus tshaj tawm thawj zaug.” Nws them tau txog peb teev siv tsis muaj internet rau hauv qhov tsua tsheb ciav hlau thiab qhov chaw tsis muaj kev txuas internet zoo^[4]. Lub tuam txhab hais tias muaj kev teev ntawv (captioning) rau cov neeg Deaf uas nyiam los yog cia siab rau ntawv sau^[5].

Cov neeg nyob tom qab nws kuj tseem ceeb thiab. Lub tuam txhab lub nplooj ntawv txog peb hais txog Robert Tiffert ua tus thawj coj ua haujlwm (chief operating officer) Deaf, paub txog rau hom lus teem ntawv tes^[6]. Tus tsim lub tuam txhab tau qhia rau Wired tias nws tau ntiav peb tug full-stack engineers thaum pib, txhua tus yog Deaf siv lus teem ntawv tes^[7]. Lub tuam txhab piav qhia nws tus kheej tias “tsim los ntawm & rau Zej Zog Deaf”^[2] thiab hais tias nws “tab tom tsim cov algorithms nrog zej zog deaf thiab cov kws tshawb txog lus”^[5]. Nws tseem tau qhia tseeb txog cov kev txwv: lub kaw lus tam sim no khiav hauv cloud thiab siv sijhawm ntau los tsim cov lus teem ntawv tes, kev txhais ntawv tam sim nyob hauv lub cuab yeej (on-device) tseem “tsawg kawg yuav siv ib xyoo ntxiv,” thiab pab neeg tau tso tseg lawv thawj lub hom phiaj, txhais lus teem ntawv tes ua ntawv sau, vim nws “pom tias nyuaj dua li xav.” Cov no yog cov lus ib lub tuam txhab hais thaum nws tabtom qhia tseeb txog qhov nws tau tsim tau.

Qhov twg nws tab tom khiav?

Txhua yam uas yuav tshwm sim tom ntej no nyob ntawm ib qho tseeb uas NCG tsis tau txheeb xyuas tau: seb Transit Assist puas tabtom pabcuam pej xeem nyob qhov twg, thiab yog li, nyob qhov twg.

Cov lus piav qhia hloov pauv ntawm ib txoj kev npaj, ib txoj kev koom tes, thiab ib txoj kev koom tes ua ke, thiab lub tuam txhab tus kheej lub nplooj ntawv kev thauj mus los tam sim no tsuas hais “cov kev sim ua ntej nrog cov network loj,” tsis hais npe ib qho. TfL yog ib lub koomhaum pej xeem nrog nws tus kheej cov ntaub ntawv luam tawm thiab cov luag haujlwm txog kev qhib ntaub ntawv rau pej xeem (freedom of information), thiab NCG tsis pom dab tsi los ntawm nws txog cov khoom no. Yog tias Transit Assist tabtom khiav nyob hauv TfL cov chaw nres tsheb, nws yog cov qauv kho vaj tse pej xeem thoob tebchaws uas pab cov neeg muaj cai raws kevcai nkag mus, thiab cov lus nug hauv qab no yuav tsum ceev npaum li cas. Yog tias nws tsuas yog ib txoj kev npaj, daim ntawv teev no yuav tsum hais meej meej, thiab lub tuam txhab txoj kev lag luam yuav tsum hais meej meej thiab. NCG tau nug lawm.

Dab tsi cov ntaub ntawv them nqi khoov cuag

The only published document governing Silence Speaks’ products is its privacy policy^[8]. It names Silence Speaks Ltd as data controller, gives its company number and an address at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Harwell, and offers a complaint route to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Those are the basics, and they are there. The policy carries no date, and the mirror copy NCG recorded at a second address in August now returns an error.

What the policy does not cover is the product. It does not mention video, signing, location, Transit Assist or QR codes. Its section on what data is collected promises a list and gives none. It says the company may share personal data “in connection with the licensing of our technology” and on a change of control, may store it outside the UK, and keeps it “as long as reasonably necessary.” It says nothing about whether anything a user submits trains the company’s models. And it states: “We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you,” a category the policy itself defines to include health and biometric data.

Set that sentence beside the transport product. A Deaf passenger who scans the code is identified as someone who needs signed language, at a known station, at a known time. Information that reveals a disability can be health data under UK data protection law. The app detects location automatically. The company’s other products take video as input. The policy may be right about what the company stores; it may be describing an older website rather than the product. But as written, it does not describe Transit Assist at all, and no other document does.

No terms of service were located. NCG checked the usual routes on silencespeaks.io and all returned an error. Whatever terms govern a transport operator, a hospital or a bank buying the avatar, or a passenger using it, none are public.

What trained it

The company describes its training data in one phrase, repeated across its own news page and the coverage it republishes: datasets covering “regional dialects, contextual language, and emotional tone”^[5,7]. No corpus is named. Nothing says whether the signing was recorded by the company or drawn from elsewhere, who the signers were, what they agreed to, whether they were paid, or which regional varieties of BSL are covered. This is the same Corpus Question NCG has put to every company on its roster^[9], and for an avatar that speaks for public bodies, the answer belongs in writing.

What nobody has measured

No accuracy figure of any kind was located. The company’s own news page describes “remarkable accuracy”; Wired reports that the team has “set high standards for accuracy.” Neither is a measurement. No evaluation method, sample or definition of a correct rendering is published, and no evaluation by anyone other than the company was found. The company’s site lists membership badges for the National Deaf Children’s Society and RNID and support from three universities^[2], but none of these is described as having examined the output.

When it gets it wrong

Go back to the platform. The signer on her phone tells the passenger her train has moved to platform 4. It has moved to platform 14. Or the announcement was an instruction to leave the station, and the avatar rendered a delay.

Live rendering means no person can check that sentence before she sees it. That is a fact about the architecture, not a failing, and it is true of every live system. What matters is what stands in for the check. NCG located none: no reviewer, no sampling of live output after the fact, no stated position on whether emergency or evacuation announcements are in scope, no provision for a passenger without a smartphone, and no route for her to report that the signing was wrong or to find out who is responsible for it.

The transport page also tells operators that the European Accessibility Act deadline of 28 June 2025 is approaching and cites fines of up to £425,000, with no source^[4]. The site’s code declares WCAG 2.1 AA conformance, but no accessibility statement was located, which a UK public-sector deployment would ordinarily require.

Who decides

Silence Speaks has more Deaf people in senior roles than most companies on NCG’s roster: a Deaf chief operating officer and, by its own account, Deaf engineers from the start. That is real, and it is credited. What the public record does not show is whether any Deaf role can stop a release, change what the avatar signs, or refuse a deployment. No advisory body, charter or documented route for the wider Deaf community was located.

Its board is described in political and medical terms. Companies House lists two directors: the founder, and Chloe Smith, a former Secretary of State who led the 2022 legislation recognizing British Sign Language in UK law, appointed in June 2025 and described by Wired as chair^[10,7]. Positive News reported in January 2026 that Dr John LeeAllen, an NHS doctor and technology investor, sits on the board^[12]; he does not appear on the Companies House register of directors, so his role may be advisory. Legislative standing is genuine credibility. It is not Deaf governance, and NCG records it under board composition rather than as evidence of Deaf authority.

Yam ib tus neeg yuav khoom yuav tsum nug

For a transport operator, the questions are concrete. Is emergency and evacuation content in scope? What latency should passengers expect? What happens when a rendering fails, the network drops or the passenger has no phone? Who reviews live output, and how would a Deaf passenger report an error? For a hospital, a bank or an exam board, the questions are sharper still, because those are settings where a wrong sign has consequences no one can undo.

Questions put to Silence Speaks

NCG has put the following questions to Silence Speaks in writing, with this record attached. The company’s answers, and any corrections to the record above, will be published with it.

1. Is Transit Assist in public service anywhere today? What is the status of the work with Transport for London: live, piloting, contracted or planned, and at which stations or lines? Which “major networks” ran the early pilots, and has any of them published results?

2. What data trained the avatar? Was the signing recorded by Silence Speaks or obtained elsewhere, under what licence, from which signers, with what consent and compensation, and which regional varieties of BSL does it cover?

3. Has the signed output been evaluated for accuracy by anyone other than the company, by what method and with what result? Do Deaf reviewers check output, and for live transport announcements, what control stands in for pre-release review?

4. What data does Transit Assist collect when a passenger scans a code, including location, how long is it kept, and is it linked to any identifier? How does the privacy policy’s statement that the company collects no special category data apply to a service whose use reveals that the user is Deaf? Is anything a user submits used to train models, and which terms of service govern passengers and customers?

5. Are emergency, evacuation or other safety-critical announcements within the scope of Transit Assist? What is the typical latency, what happens when a rendering fails or the network is unavailable, and what does a passenger without a smartphone receive?

6. Beyond employment, can any Deaf role at Silence Speaks halt a release or deployment or change what the avatar signs? Is there a Deaf advisory body or other route for the wider community? What is Dr John LeeAllen’s role, given that he does not appear on the Companies House register of directors?

7. What route does a Deaf user have, in sign language, to report a wrong rendering, and who is responsible for it, Silence Speaks or the deploying operator? Is there an accessibility statement for the Transit Assist web app?

Silence Speaks’ response

Silence Speaks’ response will appear here in full when it is received.