Análise de traduções dos aplicativos Hand Talk e VLibras: uma reflexão sobre o uso de tradutores virtuais de Português-Libras no contexto da EaD como ferramenta de apoio para alunos surdos no Brasil

The objective of this dissertation is to analyze and compare the translations of vocabulary words from Portuguese to Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), performed by the translation applications Hand Talk and VLibras, verifying the level of equality of these translations with the translations present in dictionariesof Portuguese-Libras, seeking to understand the linguistic accessibility providedby these applications and to reflect on their applicability as a support tool for the deaf student in distance education platforms. The research questions that guide this work are: a) are the translations performed by the Hand Talk and VLibras applications in consensus with the translations already consolidated in Portuguese-Libras dictionaries? and b) are the applications fully capable of being used as a support tool for deaf students in distance education platforms, providing quality linguistic accessibility? The theoretical basis of this research is the Portuguese-Libras dictionaries of Brandão (2011) and Capovilla et al.(2017) and the linguistic studies of Brazilian Sign Language by Quadros (2004), as well as a literature review. The research is applied, transversal, and exploratory, with quantitative (descriptive statistics) and qualitative approaches in the analysis and comparison of Portuguese-Libras translations performed by the applications. Thirty words were selected from the list of most frequent words in Machado de Assis’work, 10 verbs, 10 nouns,and 10 adjectives, which served as a basis for the analysis and comparisons of the translations. The analysisidentified errors in the translations, with a higher incidence in the translations performed by the VLibras application. The study concludes that research and improvements are needed to improve the quality of Portuguese-Libras translations, to ensure greater inclusion of the deaf in teaching and learning processes, specifically in distance education