주권 From Deaf Sports Policy to a Generative Visual Asset Economy

[안규환]

From Deaf Sports Policy to a Generative Visual Asset Economy

Reconstructing Deaf Communication, Governance, and Economic Sovereignty in 2026

Ann Geu-Hwan

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Abstract

This paper reconstructs a 2007 master’s thesis on Deaf sports policy in light of the technological and social conditions of 2026. The original thesis analyzed the status of Asia-Pacific Deaf sports, proposed the regularization of Jeju-hosted Deaf sports events, and emphasized the need for legal support, official media, and an IPTV station as strategic infrastructure. It argued that Deaf sports possessed a distinct institutional identity and required a dedicated media and international exchange framework rather than subsumption under generalized disability sports policy.

This paper argues that the central issue has now become broader and deeper: Deaf communication remains structurally vulnerable because sign-based expression‎ often disappears across time and space without persistent record, verifiable meaning, or economically ownable form. In response, this study proposes a shift from translation-centered accessibility to generative, visual, and self-guaranteed communication. Through the integration of GPT-based meaning generation, visual structuring systems, and a personalized interpretive interface called Malgeulson Friend, Deaf individuals can transform experience, interpretation, and sign-compatible communication into persistent visual assets such as infographics, slides, and explainable content.

The study further proposes a self-guarantee economy in which such outputs function not only as communication tools but also as evidence, trust mechanisms, and monetizable digital assets. By combining cooperative legal structures, unmanned production stations, and platform distribution through YouTube, the model enables Deaf individuals to move from dependency-based welfare positioning to self-directed creation, accountability, and income generation.

Keywords: Deaf, generative AI, sign language, visual assets, self-guarantee, cooperative, YouTube, visual evidence, Deaf sports, platform economy

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1. Introduction

The 2007 thesis identified a structural policy gap in Deaf sports. Although global Deaf sports had a long history and institutional independence, Korean policy failed to properly recognize that independence, while Jeju was positioned as a potential hub for Deaf sports, media, and international exchange. The thesis proposed regularizing Deaf sports events in Jeju and building an official media infrastructure, especially through an IPTV station model.

In 2026, those proposals can be reinterpreted in a radically different technological environment. The most important issue is no longer only whether Deaf sports receives proper institutional recognition. The deeper problem is that Deaf communication, especially sign-based communication, often remains ephemeral. It is rich in meaning, but unless it is captured, structured, and preserved, it vanishes. When meaning disappears, accountability weakens. When accountability weakens, distortion, conflict, and fraud become more likely.

This study therefore moves beyond a sports-policy framework and repositions the original thesis within a larger question:

How can Deaf individuals generate persistent, verifiable, and economically valuable communication assets from their own experience, interpretation, and expression‎?

This paper answers that question by reconstructing the original thesis into a 2026 framework built on generative AI, visual evidence, and self-guarantee.

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2. Historical Foundations: The 2007 Thesis and Its Significance

The 2007 thesis contained three major lines of argument.

First, it documented the institutional distinctiveness of Deaf sports and criticized policy efforts that ignored that distinctiveness. The thesis distinguished Deaf sports from Paralympic-centered governance and argued that Deaf sports had its own history, organizations, and international legitimacy.

Second, it presented Jeju as a strategic site for regularizing Asia-Pacific Deaf sports events. Jeju was described not merely as a host location but as a potential hub linking sports infrastructure, tourism, international exchange, and cultural positioning.

Third, and most importantly for this reconstructed paper, it proposed the creation of official media for Deaf sports and an IPTV station. The original thesis recognized that sports events alone were not sufficient; what mattered was the ability to reproduce memory, meaning, and connection through persistent media. It discussed official network infrastructure, media broadcasting, sign-based communication, global connectivity, and the possibility that Jeju could function as a media base for Deaf communities across the Asia-Pacific region.

In retrospect, this was a highly advanced insight. The original thesis was, in essence, searching for a way to convert Deaf experience into durable cultural and communicative infrastructure. What it lacked was not conceptual depth but technological feasibility at the individual level.

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3. The Structural Limitation of Sign Language as Ephemeral Communication

Sign language is powerful, embodied, and semantically rich. Yet it also presents a structural difficulty: it disappears unless deliberately preserved. This problem is not a weakness of sign language as language; rather, it is a weakness in the surrounding social and technical infrastructure.

When sign-based expression‎ is not preserved:

• the meaning of past communication becomes disputable,
• accountability becomes difficult to enforce,
• interpretation depends on memory or intermediary authority,
• and conflict is easily reproduced.

The original thesis approached this problem through media infrastructure and broadcasting. In 2026, however, the problem can be reframed more sharply:

The key issue is not whether sign language can be translated, but whether meaning can be generated, visualized, stored, and revisited as evidence.

This distinction is decisive. Translation attempts to move one expression‎ into another linguistic form. Generation, by contrast, reconstructs meaning into forms that can persist across time, travel across platforms, and support later judgment.

Thus, what is required is not only sign-language recognition or video archiving, but a system that converts lived experience and interpretation into visual evidence.

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4. Paradigm Shift: From Translation to Generation

The older model may be summarized as follows:

Sign → Interpretation → Text → Temporary Understanding

The emerging model proposed in this paper is different:

Question / Experience → AI Generation → Visual Structuring → Sign-Compatible Reinterpretation → Persistent Record

This is not merely a technical update. It is a shift in the very grammar of communication.

Under the old model, the Deaf individual depends on interpretation and external mediation. Under the new model, the Deaf individual becomes the initiator of generation and the final judge of relevance and accuracy.

The key transition is therefore:

• from language transfer to meaning generation,
• from interpreter dependency to creator agency,
• from temporary exchange to persistent record,
• from expression‎ alone to asset formation.

The original thesis’s call for official media and IPTV stations can now be seen as an early search for this generative turn.

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5. Generative System Architecture in 2026

This paper proposes a three-layer system for Deaf visual asset production.

5.1 GPT as Meaning Generator

GPT functions as the meaning-generation layer. It receives questions, experiences, policy documents, news sources, or life situations and turns them into structured explanations, summaries, narratives, or interpretive content.

Its role is not simply to answer, but to expand raw experience into explainable form.

5.2 Visual Structuring Systems

A visual structuring layer, such as NotebookLM-based slide or infographic generation, converts AI-generated meaning into persistent visual formats. These formats may include:

• infographics,
• sketch-note summaries,
• presentation slides,
• visual briefing documents.

This step is decisive because it transforms volatile interpretation into shareable structure.

5.3 Malgeulson Friend as Humanization Layer

A custom MyGPT system, Malgeulson Friend, acts as a humanization and sign-compatible transformation engine. Its role is to connect:

• speech/meaning (mal),
• writing/structure (geul),
• hand/sign/embodied understanding (son).

This layer simplifies difficult content, adapts it to a learner level, and proposes sign-based expression‎ structures. Without this step, visual outputs may remain informational but not truly communicative.

Together, these layers form a practical communication pipeline:

Question → GPT → Visual Output → Malgeulson Friend → Re-visualization / Sharing

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6. HandLoop™ and Human Sovereignty

A core principle of this model is that the human user must remain the sovereign actor. For this reason, the paper emphasizes a manual automation process called HandLoop™.

HandLoop™ is not API automation. It is deliberate, human-centered, copy-and-paste iteration:

1. Ask a question
2. Generate content with GPT
3. Copy and store the result
4. Review independently
5. Re-input refined questions
6. Generate visual assets
7. Judge fitness and meaning

This method matters because it preserves user agency. It prevents total dependence on invisible machine pipelines and instead makes judgment, choice, and responsibility remain with the person.

The philosophical importance of this model is simple:

The user does not need complete prior understanding. The user needs the will to ask, the ability to act, and the power to judge.

This principle redefines expertise. In this system, one does not begin by becoming an expert. One becomes capable through question-driven action.

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7. From Communication to Visual Assets

The outputs of this system are not merely communication aids. They are visual assets.

A visual asset is any generated and preserved output that has all of the following properties:

• communicative meaning,
• persistent form,
• interpretive accountability,
• potential exchange value.

Examples include:

• infographics explaining a policy issue,
• slides translating complex geopolitical events into Deaf-friendly formats,
• visual summaries of lived experience,
• sign-compatible structured learning materials.

This is a major departure from the 2007 framework. The original thesis treated media as a support structure for visibility, connection, and event promotion. In the 2026 reconstruction, the output itself becomes a unit of evidence and a unit of value.

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8. Self-Guarantee System™

At the center of the reconstructed framework is the concept of Self-Guarantee.

Traditional systems of trust depend on external authorities:

• institutions,
• experts,
• legal documents,
• administrative recognition.

The proposed system inverts this structure. Here, trust is not requested from outside. It is generated from within the process itself.

The sequence is:

Question → Generation → Recording → Evidence → Trust

Thus:

What I generate becomes my evidence.
What I preserve becomes my guarantee.

This has far-reaching implications. It means that a Deaf individual does not have to wait for translation, certification, or approval before possessing a communicative record. The record can be self-produced, self-owned, and repeatedly re-examined.

This is why the model is called a Self-Guarantee System™. It produces not only content but a self-authored basis for credibility.

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9. Economic Structure: From Welfare to Production

The 2007 thesis discussed sports industry effects, tourism impacts, and media value in relation to Deaf sports and Jeju development. It recognized the possibility that Deaf sports media could create new kinds of work and industrial activity.

The 2026 reconstruction carries that insight further by proposing a Deaf visual asset economy.

9.1 Production Logic

The traditional welfare logic is:

Need → Assistance → Consumption

The proposed production logic is:

Need → Generation → Asset → Revenue

This is more than empowerment rhetoric. It is a different economic architecture.

9.2 Cooperative + Platform Hybrid

The recommended practical form is a hybrid between:

• a general cooperative (legal and distributive structure),
• and YouTube or similar platforms (distribution and cash-flow engine).

The cooperative provides:

• collective governance,
• ownership management,
• revenue distribution,
• shared branding.

The platform provides:

• visibility,
• audience accumulation,
• ad revenue,
• sponsorship potential,
• market discovery.

Together they enable a low-cost but scalable model.

9.3 Infinite Variability from Finite Sources

A key advantage of this system is that one source document can yield many different outputs. A single news article, policy document, or personal experience can be:

• interpreted differently by different members,
• structured differently by GPT,
• visualized differently by the platform,
• re-humanized differently by Malgeulson Friend.

Thus, one source is not one output. It is many outputs.

This helps overcome the problem of repetitive content on video platforms. The content is not mere reuse; it is generative variation grounded in distinct interpretive agency.

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10. Unmanned Stations and Generative Production Spaces

The original thesis envisioned official media infrastructure and an IPTV station linked to Deaf sports and Jeju. In the 2026 framework, this evolves into a more distributed and practical model: the unmanned station or generative station.

Such a station is not a vending kiosk. It is a production environment where a user can:

• input a question,
• generate text and meaning,
• produce an infographic or slide,
• transform it into sign-compatible explanation,
• upload it to a platform,
• and convert it into a persistent economic asset.

The station can also incorporate care functions, public-information functions, and cooperative content pipelines.

In this sense, the station becomes:

• a micro-broadcast studio,
• a communication lab,
• an evidence generator,
• a self-employment interface.

The 2007 dream of a hub is therefore realized not only at the institutional level, but at the individual production level.

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11. Social Implications: Accountability, Fraud Prevention, and Deaf Sovereignty

One of the strongest implications of this model is that it changes the social status of communication.

When communication disappears, responsibility is weakened.
When communication is preserved as visual evidence, responsibility is strengthened.

For this reason, the system is not only a communication system but also an accountability system. It helps reduce fraud and manipulation by making interpretation and expression‎ reviewable.

This does not mean that every disagreement disappears. It means that fewer claims can hide behind disappearance.

The larger implication is Deaf sovereignty.

In this model, Deaf individuals are no longer positioned mainly as:

• recipients of access services,
• subjects of interpretation,
• beneficiaries of welfare.

Instead, they become:

• generators of meaning,
• producers of assets,
• owners of records,
• participants in platform economies.

This is why the paper speaks not merely of communication reform, but of economic sovereignty.

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12. Conclusion

The 2007 thesis was visionary. It identified the need for Deaf sports independence, official media, and a Jeju-based communication hub at a time when the technology to fully realize that vision did not yet exist.

In 2026, that missing technology has arrived.

Generative AI makes it possible to do at the individual level what once required institutional media systems. More importantly, it allows Deaf communication to be reimagined not as a problem of translation but as a process of generation, preservation, and ownership.

The central conclusions of this reconstructed thesis are threefold.

First, the future of Deaf communication lies not in translation alone, but in generation and visualization.
Second, persistent visual assets can function simultaneously as communication, evidence, and trust infrastructure.
Third, Deaf self-reliance in the AI era is best understood not as dependency reduction alone, but as the construction of a self-guarantee economy.

The final statement of this paper is therefore:

I am not merely interpreted. I generate.
I do not disappear. I remain.
I do not wait to be guaranteed. I guarantee myself.

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References

Ann, G.-H. (2007). Master’s thesis on Deaf sports case study (uploaded file).