Trenitalia's LIS/IS Multimedia System — an AI Sign-Language Avatar at Italy's Busiest Stations

Deaf and hard-of-hearing rail passengers in Italy have long had to rely on written notices, third-party interpreters or family members to get real-time information about platforms, delays and services inside stations.

From 4 March 2026, Trenitalia — Italy's state passenger railway — began trialling a way to close that gap directly at the ticket counter, letting Deaf travellers interact in real time with a digital avatar signing in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and International Sign (IS).

The 'Sistema multimediale LIS e IS' is an interactive kiosk built with Italy's national Deaf association, Ente Nazionale Sordi (ENS), letting travellers independently check available travel options, ticket details such as departure platform, and points of interest inside the station (assistance desks, restrooms, food services), and request remote human support by text or video message in LIS/IS; the same touchpoint also offers text and voice content in 14 spoken languages. The avatar's signing was built from roughly 8,000 videos recorded with 30 Deaf signers, so its vocabulary and movement come directly from the community it serves rather than from a generic animation library.

As of publication the service was live only at the ticket offices of Milan Centrale and Rome Termini, two of Italy's busiest stations, with Trenitalia describing a 'progressive extension' to other major Italian stations as the trial matures, but no usage or satisfaction figures had yet been published.

Because the system launched in March 2026, there is no independent post-launch evaluation yet of translation accuracy, traveller satisfaction or usage volumes, and its footprint remains two stations pending the promised wider rollout.