“Hello, I’m Min-ji So, an creator who captures the every day moments of a deaf mom and her listening to little one by means of illustrations.”
Instagram webtoon creator Min-ji So makes use of her drawings to share the data she as soon as struggled to seek out as a Deaf dad or mum elevating a listening to little one. In a world the place entry to data is uneven and social constraints persist, she selected webtoons as her medium of communication. Immediately, almost 5,000 readers comply with her tales. By means of this distinctive language of her personal, she has discovered a option to really join with the world.
Rising Up in a World Constructed Round Sound
“Quantity 25! Please arise and browse web page 75. Who’s quantity 25?”
Min-ji So’s childhood appeared markedly completely different from right this moment. Each time her title was known as at school, she needed to depend on the classmate sitting subsequent to her. She remembers the world as one formed by a society constructed round listening to. To have interaction with that world, she relied on others for connection. For a very long time, as an alternative of dreaming about bridging that divide, she selected to quietly settle for actuality and give attention to adapting to it.
She ultimately let go of her childhood love for drawing and started working as an indication language interpreter in Seoul. Then ten years in the past, she left that job and, later in life, took the daring step of turning into a webtoon creator. However on this new journey, she as soon as once more discovered herself facetoface with the bounds of language.
A Deaf creator confronting the partitions of language
“Do you know that many Deaf Koreans battle with studying and writing in Korean?”
Most individuals assume that being Deaf merely means not having the ability to hear. But many Deaf people additionally face challenges with studying and writing Korean. For them, signal language is their first language, whereas Korean can really feel nearly overseas. Refined distinctions—similar to “몰라 (I don’t know),” “모르지 (You don’t know, proper?),” and “모르더라 (they don’t know)”—will be particularly exhausting to know. The identical goes for onomatopoeia and mimetic phrases that seem continuously in on a regular basis speech.
However to create a webtoon, she had no selection however to inform her tales in Korean. Even one awkward expression might break the reader’s immersion. As she labored, she realized that the bounds of language usually grew to become the bounds of creativity. She additionally found that many aspiring Deaf creators confronted the identical challenges.
If you aren’t absolutely comfy with Korean, you inevitably depend on others to refine your script. However well timed suggestions isn’t all the time out there, and the ready breaks your inventive move. For a lot of Deaf artists, this language barrier turns into one more wall, making it more durable to proceed creating on their very own.
To deal with this downside, a peer suggestions system was created by which Deaf creators helped refine each other’s work. However it lasted lower than a yr. Writers with robust grammar abilities had been shortly inundated with requests, exposing the failings of a system that relied too closely on a small group and finally revealing its unsustainability.
Past Limits: AI Opens a New Dimension of Creativity
Confronted with these struggles, she started to discover new prospects with AI. She first encountered conversational AI final yr, about six months after it had entered on a regular basis life. Then a sudden thought crossed her thoughts:
“What if AI might repair Korean grammar?”
She had lengthy carried this chance in her coronary heart. In Might, she lastly had the possibility to show it into actuality by becoming a member of the Microsoft AI for Impression program. Reflecting on that second, she says:
“Seeing how deeply Deaf creators longed to precise themselves freely and independently, I felt compelled to assist tackle the challenges they face.”
Working with AI, nevertheless, was removed from easy. The toughest half was studying methods to ask the correct questions. At first, she communicated with AI utilizing easy instructions like ‘do that,’ ‘not like that,’ or ‘strive a unique matter.’ However such primary directions fell brief for inventive work, and the AI usually produced responses that missed the mark.
“Consider AI as a professor.”
A mentor’s recommendation made her pause and replicate on the conversations she had with AI. Good solutions require good questions. Simply as you’ll with a professor, it’s essential to ask particularly—for instance, ‘I attempted this method, but it surely nonetheless doesn’t work. Is there a greater technique?’
However for Deaf creators—a lot of whom expertise Korean nearly like a overseas language—posing detailed inquiries to AI and genuinely collaborating with it is extraordinarily difficult. She realized that if AI was to function a real inventive instrument, this situation needed to be addressed earlier than the rest.
By means of the Microsoft AI for Impression program, she found her breakthrough: studying methods to harness Microsoft Copilot.
This system, AI-based capability empowerment venture designed for social enterprises and nonprofits, supplied step-by-step assist—from primary training to professional mentoring and hands-on coaching.
In 2024 alone, roughly 12,000 folks joined the foundational periods, 30 groups enrolled within the intensive program, and 5 initiatives had been developed into actual AI brokers.
By the tip of this system, she had developed an AI agent known as the ‘Webtoon Storyboard Assistant,’ designed to assist Deaf creators.
She remembers her first collaboration with Copilot:
“It felt as if I had lastly gained a brand new inventive assistant.”
At first, she anticipated nothing greater than grammar corrections. However Copilot went past that—it unlocked her inventive move. By asking sudden questions, it helped her spark new concepts and inform her tales extra freely as a webtoon creator.
“I need to add a scene displaying battle between characters.”
When she requested this, Copilot didn’t simply reply with choices A, B, and C. As an alternative, it requested extra inventive prompts: “Describe the feelings in a novelistic model” or “Specific the sensation as if it had been a drama script, with heightened stress.” This method helped her think about richer, extra vivid scenes.
By means of her exchanges with Copilot, her tales and storyboards grew extra inventive and polished. On the similar time, her sentences had been mechanically refined into pure, wellstructured Korean. Even particulars she as soon as agonized over—expressions, character poses, background artwork—grew to become simpler to resolve. Background work that had beforehand taken hours was now accomplished in a fraction of the time.
“AI can really improve your inventive energy.”
By means of this course of, she gained confidence that deaf creators can develop their concepts freely, with out hesitation. She witnessed firsthand that they might create tales that weren’t solely extra imaginative but in addition extra polished. Above all, she realized that collaboration with AI begins with asking the correct questions.
AI That First Asks Deaf Creators
By means of this course of, she arrived at one essential query:
“How can Deaf creators make efficient use of AI?”
She understood how difficult it was for Deaf creators to border detailed questions in Korean. Her answer was to reverse the path of questioning:
“What if the AI requested them first?”
This shift in pondering quickly led to the event of an AI agent for Deaf creators. The AI begins by asking questions, and the creator merely solutions. From these responses, it mechanically generates the story define and storyboard, whereas additionally making the sentences grammatically polished and pure.
Through the use of this AI, the webtoon creation course of grew to become dramatically less complicated. In comparison with the outdated workflow, which required a number of rounds of suggestions, the new method enhanced not solely effectivity but in addition the general high quality of the storytelling.
“Don’t Simply Have a look at Grammar—See the Entire Story”
In different phrases, it was necessary to shift our perspective and really see the forest for the bushes. Grammar is just one a part of the image. What really mattered was enabling Deaf creators to precise their tales freely. That, greater than something, was the important basis for supporting their inventive work. By means of this course of, she skilled a brand new dimension the place creativity expands and intensifies by means of collaboration with AI.
“One of the best half is that I now not need to ask anybody for assist.”
This was the response of 1 Deaf creator who examined her AI agent.
With it, Deaf creators can now write freely, visualize their concepts, and craft their tales solely on their very own.
A Perception in Independence, Expanded into AI Schooling
Her journey naturally expanded into instructing others methods to harness AI. In November, she organized and led her first AI workshop in a classroom in Seongdong-gu, Seoul.
Seven aspiring Deaf and hard-of-hearing creators attended, asking questions with confidence and taking part enthusiastically till the very finish.
“I’ve witnessed many friends abandon their desires of turning into webtoon creators after hitting the tough limits of actuality.”
However now, by means of the AI training program she designed and personally teaches, she will share the chances she found. She hopes to proceed passing on this expertise in order that Deaf creators going through comparable challenges can discover hope: “With AI, you’ll be able to overcome limitations.”
AI Connecting Extra Tales to the World
“There are only a few Deaf webtoon creators —it’s extraordinarily uncommon.”
She acknowledged that not everybody can absolutely perceive the challenges she faces. However she added,
“However for many who reside by means of it, these difficulties aren’t mere frustrations.”
She believes that social obstacles are nothing greater than frameworks constructed across the majority. In actuality, everybody lives in another way, and our languages do, too. What she hopes for is a world the place this easy reality is embraced naturally.
AI has turn into a bridge, enabling Deaf creators to step past obstacles that after felt insurmountable and opening new pathways to talk with the world. For her, a door has lastly opened to share her story extensively and to speak in a method that feels entire and true.
She closes with a agency message.
“I hope Deaf creators can transfer past inventive limits and share their tales with confidence, with AI as their assistant. And I hope AI will assist join many extra folks’s tales to the world.”