The World Federtion for the Deaf (WFD) and the International Federation of Hard of Hearing People (IFHOH) have issued a

Joint Statement: Automatic Speech Recognition in Telephone Relay Services and in Captioning Services

“The field of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) has progressed significantly with the advancement of artificial intelligence technology. As a result, more applications that utilise ASR, and AI technologies are developed and have shown a promising impact on communication and accessibility. However, this field is emerging and the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and International Federation of Hard of Hearing (IFHOH) are documenting a small number of user experiences and cases using ASR technology. There needs to be continuing effort in research and development with deaf and hard of hearing par-ticipation to improve the uses and applications of ASR technology.

This joint statement is to inform that ASR should not replace current communication methods, such as Telecommunication Relay Services (TRS) and Captioning services.”

Read the full statement here [pdf]