Being the airport can be an extremely confusing journey.

Navigating the airport, finding your gate, or claiming your baggage can be overwhelming, especially with all of the PA announcements.

Imagine how difficult navigating the airport is for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

Thankfully, the Grand Rapids airport is doing something big to combat that issue.

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Gerald R. Ford Airport & Sign Language Boards

The Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids has added new technology to make the airport more accessible for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community.

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With this new technology and initiative, everyone can travel with the same easy convenience.

Now, Gerald R. Ford Airport has become one of the first airports in the United States to test the new AI sign language boards.

In November 2023, Gerald R. Ford Airport started to test out this technology with their Ford Launchpad for Innovative Technologies and Entrepreneurship, better known as the FLITE, Program.

Before the test ended in 2023, the FLITE program partnered with Southwest Airlines, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Seamless Ventures, and the West Michigan Aviation Academy.

J.J. Swain, the IT manager at Gerald R. Ford Airport, shared with Fox 17 that it will be "a way to communicate these basic messages that everybody else hears over the PA system."

"We can feed just about any text in that we need for flight information."

As of now, the sign language boards give only basic information and messaging throughout the airport. However, over time that will be changing.

According to Swain, the technology will be able to translate into American Sign Language more effectively within the next 12 to 24 months.

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