Handtalk partnership | Public Institutions

This compendium, prepared by the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), aims to capture emerging trends in digital responses of UN Member States against the COVID-19 pandemic along with other digital government initiatives and provide a preliminary analysis of their main features. These cases are shared for exchange of information so that Member States can learn from each other and possibly create new partnerships.

São Paulo has partnered with Handtalk, a digital accessibility startup. The app has the purpose of making it easier than ever before to bridge the gap between the hearing and the Deaf community. The Hand Talk app is a pocket translator that automatically translates oral languages both in text and audio to sign languages.
Hugo, the character that shows up at Sao Paulo’s website, initiates the conversation with the visitor: “Hi, I'm Hugo, Hand Talk's Libra virtual translator and I'm here to help you! Click on texts from the site and I'll translate it for you!”

Country

Brazil

Institution

São Paulo