BAHASA ISYARAT MALAYSIA (BIM) MOBILE APLLICATION

Malaysian particularly is lacking the awareness to communicate with speech/hearing impaired person especially Deaf people. There was a communication gap between normal and Deaf people while communicating. However, there are also problem faced by Deaf people in their daily life where sometimes they lack their communication tools such as through books and the internet is in the fact that they are not practically available and readily-accessible in certain circumstances. Classes and translator will cost a fortune to acquire; therefore, they are a rather undesirable alternative to improve communication between Deaf people as well as aiding the learning process of Malaysian Sign Language. To overcome this issue, a mobile application is developed intended to aid users to learn and assist communication using Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM). For one, being a mobile application allows for it to be readily-accessible and available at all times. It does not require any connection to the internet which can be limited in certain places or times. The application would help normal people to translate the words they wish to communicate with Deaf people. This application also can assist Deaf people to communicate among them while they are in the community. The prototype is developed using the Netbeans IDE with Android SDK plug-ins due to the application being targeted for the current time being at the Android platform. The basic requirements of the application were based on the research conducted during this study to determine what criteria are to be studied and implemented in the application. The outcome of this project is the development of Bahasa Isyarat Malaysia (BIM) Mobile Application which is for android user. This application is in Malay which consists of eight categories for user to learn Sign Language; Numbers, Alphabets, Pronouns, Family, Questions, Feelings, Greetings and Games. User testing was conducted and there were some discussion regarding the images, navigation button, performance, contents and the application features. Although there were some weakness on the application developed, however, most of the respondents were satisfied with the application.