Anticipation for Sian Heder’s CODA has been building over the past seven months since its acclaimed premiere at Sundance Film Festival. CODA broke festival records when Apple paid $25 million for the tender coming-of-age story about a hearing teenager, her Deaf family, and her dilemma of whether to pursue music school or stay behind to support her family’s business. What audiences may not realize is that the drama is an English-language remake of Éric Lartigau’s La Famille Bélier, which gathered six nominations at the 40th César Awards. Although there are many similarities between the two films, Heder’s version makes several striking changes to the story, which we’ve rounded up below.

Where La Famille Bélier follows a family of dairy farmers in rural France, CODA transports the action to Massachusetts and centers around a fishing business. The different cultures and lines of work alter the specifics, but both films involve working-class families dealing with lack of resources and deaf access.

La Famille Bélier opens with 16-year-old Paula (Louane Emera) in a barn, tending to a cow giving birth in the dark of night. Paula works on her family’s dairy farm in rural France, and her brother and parents culturally Deaf, French Sign Language (LSF) users. Paula interprets for her family on a daily basis, assisting with orders and selling cheese at the market. Paula’s best friend is Mathilde (Roxane Duran), who ends up dating Paula’s brother, Quentin (Luca Gelberg); the two share a rather unfortunate sexual encounter that results in anaphylactic shock due to a latex allergy.

Early on in the film, Paula develops a crush on Gabriel (Ilian Bergala) and signs up for the same choir group as him. Mr. Thomasson (Éric Elmosnino), her music teacher, soon discovers her gift for singing, encouraging her to audition for a prestigious music college in Paris. Paula’s father decides to run for mayor, relying on Paula to interpret for him at meetings and interviews.

CODA begins on open waters, the sound of Ruby’s voice gliding over the waves as she works away on her family’s fishing boat. Ruby is the only hearing member of the Rossi family, and her parents and older brother are Deaf, American Sign Language (ASL) users. Like Paula, Ruby interprets for her family and assists with her family’s business while joining the school choir to spend time with her love interest. After hearing her singing voice, Mr V (Eugenio Derbez) persuades Ruby to audition for music college, similarly offering private tutoring lessons like those of Mr. Thomasson in La Famille Bélier.

Ruby’s family struggles with the declining fishing climate, exacerbated by restrictive fees. In a moment of anger, Ruby’s father, Frank (Troy Kotsur), announces the creation of his own company to sell their fish. Ruby is relied upon to spread the word and interpret interviews and conversations, much like Paula does for her father’s campaign.

[Read: There’s More to the ASL Performances in CODA Than Nonsigners Realize]

The most noticeable character change between the two movies is the protagonist’s brother. In CODA, Leo (Daniel Durant) is older than Ruby and works as a fisherman, voicing his independence and protectiveness around his family’s livelihood throughout the film. He grows frustrated with his parents’ focus on Ruby, which finally leads to a confrontation with her. Quentin, the brother in La Famille Bélier, is younger than his sister and plays a more minor role.

A noteworthy scene in CODA involves Ruby performing in a school concert, where a brief change in soundscape brings the audience into the perspective of Ruby’s family by going silent while she sings onstage. The same thing happens in La Famille Bélier, and Paula and Ruby’s respective parents look around and witness the audience’s positive reception to their daughter’s singing.

The most significant difference between the two films involves the cast. The parents in La Famille Bélier are played by hearing actors, and to those in the know, it is apparent through their often exaggerated or inconsistent signing that they are not deaf nor fluent LSF users. The filmmaker admits he never considered casting deaf actors instead: “I didn’t want to make a documentary about the deaf. I wanted to tell the story of an adolescent girl whose experience was out of the ordinary, because she was living with deaf parents and a deaf younger brother.” Quentin is played by a deaf actor.

In CODA, there are three leading Deaf actors who are all sign language users. Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur, and Daniel Durant are fluent in ASL, and their performances breathe life into a recycled drama. Deaf and disabled actors have often had the auditioning door shut to them, while non-disabled actors go on to critical and commercial acclaim for playing disabled characters—Matlin nearly walked away from the project at the prospect of Kotsur’s role going to a hearing actor. CODA’s championing of Deaf talent is integral to its success.

CODA is being shown with open captions—meaning captions will be shown onscreen—for its theatrical release, ensuring that the film is accessible to those who need captions to enjoy films without depending on cinemas to schedule captioned showings themselves. It’s also available on AppleTV Plus with closed captions to those who have a subscription.

I viewed La Famille Bélier on UK Amazon Prime, and although the film had English subtitles for the French dialogue and LSF, it didn’t have SDH (Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing). SDH elements are crucial for deaf audience members as they convey non-dialogue sounds such as music and contextual noises, such as a phone ringing and a door slamming. The subtitles that were available were of poor quality, and it was difficult to follow the dialogue, especially with two languages being used simultaneously in most scenes: Paula speaks as she signs, and often there were only subtitles for her dialogue, and not her family’s signing, which meant audiences have to decipher what her parents and brother are saying based on her responses. Subtitles for LSF were only present when Paula isn’t around or when her family’s dialogue is considered important for context. This lack of access is exclusionary, and it ultimately points to the conclusion that deaf audiences weren’t thought of in the release of this film.

The institute describes ASL as a language with similar linguistic properties as spoken languages expressed by hand and face movements.

Molly Taylor, a sophomore studying communication sciences and disorders, said people view ASL as English with translated hand signals. There are many incorrect perceptions about ASL. Taylor said that after taking classes, she realized how much she didn't understand ASL culture. In Taylor's first ASL class, her professor taught students the language's history.

"One of the biggest things that struck me was just how much history and recent history there is concerning ASL that we just don't know about or don't hear about as hearing people," Taylor said.

Taylor learned of the injustices committed against the Deaf community in the U.S. during the era after the Civil War. Gallaudet University, the only university where higher education is designed for deaf and hard of hearing students, wrote about this problematic time in a research article. Education reformers during the late 1800s, the university said, asked schools for deaf children in order to remodel their curriculum. Reformers wanted teachers to switch from "manualism," the use of sign language, to "oralism," the use of speech and lipreading. They believed sign language isolated deaf people from society.

"Children in schools, they weren't allowed to sign," Taylor said. "And I had never heard of it. I don't even think sign language was acknowledged as a language with its own grammatical structure in the (1870s) and '80s. And, you know, it is its own language."

Discrimination against the Deaf community isn't just history. In March, the Deaf Services Center, or DSC, fired their deaf executive director and CEO, John Moore, who held the position for over 20 years, according to the Daily Moth, a publication that delivers news in ASL.

Alex Abenchuchan is a deaf host who covers trending stories and deaf topics for the outlet. Abenchuchan said the DSC replaced Moore with Greg Kellison, who has served as director of advancement and community engagement since 2018. Kellison is hearing and doesn't sign.

The DSC is a nonprofit that emerged after Ohio established the Community Centers for the Deaf, or CCD, in 1980, according to the organization's website. In 1991, the DSC was created in Columbus to expand services provided by the CCD. Their mission: "To empower the deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind and to promote access to communication, services and events in the community."

The DSC announced that Kellison would be the interim executive director in a Facebook post, said Abenchucan. A comment from an account with the profile name Greg Kellison said that Moore was terminated for "failure to exercise fiduciary responsibility." The DSC board also voted unanimously to remove Moore from the position. Deaf Ohioans and others frustrated over the decision protested outside the DSC for weeks after and continue to do so.

John Lestina is the owner and president of Heritage Interpreting, a company that connects people with ASL interpreters for events and conversations in Ohio. He said the DSC removed Moore without warning or communication to the Deaf community.

"What they've done is gotten rid of all of the deaf people and put people in place who make decisions who are not part of the community and don't have any idea about the realities of living in the community," Lestina said. "(They're) making decisions without communicating with the community. And it's like a slap in the face."

Lestina is a child of deaf adults, or CODA, and ASL is his native language.

"The Deaf community often considers themselves to be a sociolinguistic minority as opposed to a disability group," Lestina said. "And I've always identified with that as well. I come from that perspective. It's a culture, it's a sociolinguistic minority."

After college, Lestina moved to Washington D.C. to be an ASL interpreter. Lestina then moved to Boston and observed the high standards the interpreting field is held to in these cities.

Interpreters can get a National Interpreter Certification, or NIC, to prove their qualifications. Lestina said that in places such as Washington and Boston, you can't find work as an interpreter without the certification. When Lestina moved to Columbus to be closer to family, he was shocked about the standards held to interpreters in Ohio.

ASL interpreters take on a complex role. The National Deaf Center said: "Interpreting requires a high level of fluency in two or more languages, keen ability to focus on what is being said, broad-based world knowledge and professional, ethical conduct. Interpreters cannot interpret what they do not understand." ASL interpreters are present to serve all parties in a conversation.

"Here in Columbus, most interpreters do not have their NIC and they are not incentivized to go get it," Lestina said. "Why would I spend all this money to earn a certification? And that's the perspective that's very commonly held here. It was a rude awakening. The state of Ohio is one of the very few states left that doesn't have any licensure requirements."

Lestina founded Heritage Interpreting to hold the Ohio interpreting field to higher standards and ethical interpreting requirements.

"I think we're the best and the community has kind of shown that that's what they want," Lestina said. "They want people who are holding themselves to these national standards of interpreting and to be the folks doing it."

People who need an ASL interpreter can contact Heritage Interpreting, preferably a week or more before their event or conversation.

"Whenever anyone needs an interpreter, they can just call, email or go to the website and we're gonna take care of them," Lestina said.

Heritage Interpreting can be called at (800)-921-0457.

Heritage Interpreting got its name, Lestina said, because ASL and interpreting is part of his family heritage and more research is becoming available about heritage language users.

Lestina said heritage language users are people who grew up in homes where one language is predominantly spoken and is different from the one the community around them speaks. For heritage language users, access to interpreters is important. Ohio University works closely with Heritage Interpreting for their own interpreting needs.

Becky Brooks is an interpreter and OU's ASL coordinator. However, since taking on the coordinator role, she doesn't interpret as often. Brooks created the ASL curriculum for OU's Lancaster campus while working toward her Ph.D. in cultural studies with a focus on deafness. Still, Brooks's journey with ASL and interpreting began long before she joined OU's faculty.

"I was born in 1970 and in 1976 Sesame Street hired a deaf actress," Brooks said. "And I just fell in love. I was six years old. I would've been plopped down in front of the television. At that time we had three channels, so there wasn't a lot for my mother to pick from. And I fell in love with sign language, but I didn't really know anything."

Brooks said she had always wanted to be a teacher for deaf children because of her love for ASL. Even as Brooks got older, her passion for ASL didn't fade. But in terms of college, Brooks had an art scholarship to go to the Columbus College of Art and Design.

"And at the last minute, like right before the semester was going to start, I talked to somebody and I found out that Columbus State had an interpreting program," Brooks said.

Brooks got into the program and the rest is history. Along with her passion for ASL, Brooks also believes access to ASL and interpreters is important. She said that ASL can be applied in many circumstances.

"…Access to communication is everything," Brooks said. "And you can't form bonds with your peers if you can't access your peers. Communication is foundational to relationships. And those interpreters provide the bridge to individuals who can't sign or just sign basic."

John McCarthy, the interim dean of the College of Health Sciences and Professions, is working alongside Brooks to create ways for faculty within the college to learn ASL.

"I think in working with our deaf faculty, we have some great faculty who are deaf in CSD," McCarthy said. "And I have always been excited to get to know them. But they're people who, if I have an interpreter and a meeting, I can certainly talk effectively with them. But other times if I see them in the hallway, it's sort of what I can remember from my ASL class, which is getting kind of old these days."

McCarthy said he reached out to Brooks about the idea of finding a way for faculty to learn ASL and Brooks was excited about the opportunity. Brooks, McCarthy said, thought of creating or using an application similar to Duolingo. Another idea is putting ASL lessons on Blackboard for interested faculty to complete at their own pace.

"I knew that language and using language with other people is really important," McCarthy said. "So we said, well, could we also find some ways to get together too?"

There are many blossoming ideas McCarthy and Brooks have to assist faculty in learning ASL. They are starting with a survey to gauge how many people are interested in learning.

McCarthy believes individuals can make language, such as ASL, the most meaningful it can be; they just need to try.

"I think that language is best when we sit down and negotiate our meaning and ideas together," McCarthy said. When you communicate with someone, you do it because you both share a goal to understand something or to share something or to help someone else out or to just participate in a general social ritual. As a college and as faculty and people who are working together, we just have that philosophy."

While McCarthy and Brooks develop ASL lessons for faculty, OU has an ASL club where students interested in learning and practicing the language can come together throughout the school year. Jake Wendling, the former president of the club and OU alumnus, said that the club provides students with learning opportunities and experiences.

"We always do an activity or a game that teaches ASL or practices ASL that they already know,"Wendling said. "We introduce new concepts that they may not see until a higher level ASL course so we try to expose them to that kind of thing earlier. We hold fundraising events and stuff within the community to bring out the deaf and hearing communities together to get that intermingling going on."

Beyond OU, Ohio is home to the fifth school founded for the deaf in the U.S., Lestina said. Lestina is on the board for the Ohio School for the Deaf Foundation and said it's time for ASL and interpreting services to be exceptional here. The Ohio School for the Deaf is a state agency and cannot fundraise, according to Lestina. The Ohio School for the Deaf Foundation fundraises for the school and donates all proceeds.

ASL and the Deaf community have important histories globally and in Ohio. As Taylor continues to learn ASL, Lestina improves the interpreting industry, Brooks and McCarthy make ASL more accessible at OU and they all mutually understand how language shapes our lives, relationships and cultures.

"All of the people we work with on the leadership team either have deaf family members or are deaf themselves or are very close to the Deaf community," Lestina said.

"We all very much share this feeling that not only is it a community we serve, but it's a community that we're a part of, it's a community that we come from, it's our roots."John Lestina, owner and president of Heritage Interpreting

Baidu AI Cloud, a leading AI cloud provider, launched an AI sign language platform able to generate digital avatars for sign language translation and live interpretation within minutes. Released as a new offering of Baidu AI Cloud’s digital avatar platform XiLing, this platform aims to help break down communication barriers for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) community by boosting the accessibility of automated sign language translation. An AI sign language interpreter developed using the platform will perform its duties during the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics Games.

Also released along with the platform are two all-in-one AI sign language translators, providing one-stop solutions with a streamlined set-up process and plug-and-use features. By enabling public service deployment in scale, the translators have been designed for a wide range of use scenarios such as hospitals, banks, airports, bus stations and other public areas.

With the technology enablement brought by AI, the production and operational costs of digital avatars have been reduced to a significant degree, making it possible for AI sign language to go scale and serve more deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, said Tian Wu, Baidu Corporate Vice President.

Today, China is home to 27.8 million deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals but is faced with a massive shortage of qualified professionals to serve their needs, with no more than 10,000 sign language translators, a gap especially felt in medical and legal settings.

The XiLing AI sign language platform and the all-in-one sign language translators are designed to fill this significant gap and address the communication difficulties facing the DHH community in both online and offline settings. For DHH individuals who want to study or socialize online without barriers, the platform can be quickly integrated into commonly used mobile applications, websites, and mini programs within a few hours, performing functions like sign language video synthesis and livestream synthesis, text-to-sign language translation, and audio-to-sign language translations.

The all-in-one translators are tailored for offline scenarios to improve the accessibility of public services. Baidu’s translators come with two models, a full offline version V3, and a cloud-connected version P3. Both are embedded with core functions of the AI sign-language platform, able to realize ASR speech recognition, speech translation, and portrait rendering. This full range of functions offers incredible potential for empowering the DHH. For instance, DHH individuals will be able to visit the hospital and manage the complicated process of registration, consultation, payment, and medicine collection without further assistance. Additional applications hold the potential to allow the DHH community to travel, dine, and even work independently.

Technical Deep Dive

Compared to translations between spoken languages, the sign language translation is more complicated mainly because it is not translated word by word from verbal speech. Instead, the language refinement and word order must be adjusted in order to show the actual meaning of the sentence. As a relatively rarely-used language, a very limited amount of data on sign language is available for machine learning. It also requires lip language and facial expressions to assist understanding. In real-world settings, solutions are often faced with complex environmental factors making them difficult to deploy. All these practical barriers have posed numerous challenges to the development of AI sign language.

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To make AI sign language comprehendible, Baidu scientists had to resolve three key challenges: the clarity of speech recognition, the accuracy of sign language translation, and the fluency of sign language movements.

To address speech recognition clarity, the XiLing AI sign language platform uses Baidu’s home-grown SMLTA speech recognition model to achieve end-to-end modeling speech recognition through integrating acoustics and language. Based on Baidu’s self-developed deep learning algorithm, targeted training can enable word accuracy in a wide range of fields such as tourism, medical care, and legal proceedings.

In terms of the accuracy and refinement of sign language translation, Baidu has built the first neural network-based sign language translation model with a controllable degree of refinement, which can automatically learn sign language translation knowledge from real data such as word order adjustment, word mapping and length control to generate natural sign language that conforms to the habits of hard-of-hearing people.

To ensure the accuracy of the sign language translation, Baidu has invited over 500 scholars and students with hearing loss in China to help enlarge and vet the sign language corpus, with many joining the project as volunteers. Tiantian Yuan, associate dean of Technical College for the Deaf, Tianjin University of Technology, said she and her students feel incredibly honored to have contributed their parts in collaborating with Baidu to fill in this gap for the community.

To ensure the fluency of sign language actions, the AI sign language platform has sorted nearly 11,000 actions based on the National Universal Sign Language Dictionary with its “action fusion algorithm”, so that all digital sign language gestures have the degree of coherency and expression as human sign language. In addition, with the help of 4D scanning technology, the accuracy of mouth shape generation has been optimized up to 98.5%.