Deaf Users Research Articles

A descriptive grammar of morphosyntactic constructions in Ugandan Sign Language (UgSL)

The Ugandan Deaf Community, consisting of approximately 25,000 sign language users, has seen significant developments in its recent history. Government recognition of sign language, establishment of schools for the deaf, and the beginnings of research into Ugandan Sign Language (UgSL) have been important milestones. While Deaf Ugandans are entering university level education for the first time, a number of challenges to the community remain. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the linguistic structures of UgSL in order to produce a description of the language’s morphosyntax. There is a close relationship between word (or sign) properties and syntactic expressions, so UgSL is described here in terms of its morphosyntactic constructions, rather than a differentiation between morphological and syntactic features (cf. Croft 2001; Wilkinson 2013:260). While a substantial number of such descriptions exist for languages outside of Africa, this thesis is the first attempt at describing the morphosyntax of an African sign language. Many African sign languages are severely under-documented, and some are endangered. This study uses an inductive approach and a corpus-based methodology, examining how UgSL signers construct utterances of morphosyntactic complexity. The thesis is in three parts: part I is an introduction and overview of UgSL and also provides the theoretical and methodological background; part II provides a preliminary survey of UgSL grammar to provide a sider context for subsequent chapters; and part III is a detailed survey of five morphosyntactic domains of UgSL. The author is a native Deaf user of UgSL and a member of the Ugandan Deaf Community, as well as being fluent in several other sign languages and participating in international communities of Deaf people.

The Use of Prosodic Cues in Sentence Processing by Prelingually Deaf Users of Cochlear Implants.

The purpose of this study is to assess the use of prosodic and contextual cues to focus by prelingually deaf adolescent users of cochlear implants (CIs) when identifying target phonemes. We predict that CI users will have slower reaction times to target phonemes compared with a group of normally-hearing (NH) peers. We also predict that reaction times will be faster when both prosodic and contextual (semantic) cues are provided. Eight prelingually deaf adolescent users of CIs and 8 adolescents with NH completed 2 phoneme-monitoring experiments. Participants were aged between 13 and 18 years. The mean age at implantation for the CI group was 1.8 years (SD: 1.0). In the prosodic condition, reaction times to a target phoneme in a linguistically focused (i.e., stressed) word were compared between the two groups. The semantic condition compared reaction time with target phonemes when contextual cues to focus were provided in addition to prosodic cues. Reaction times of the CI group were slower than those of the NH group in both the prosodic and semantic conditions. A linear mixed model was used to compare reaction times using Group as a fixed factor and Phoneme and Subject as random factors. When only prosodic cues (prosodic condition) to focus location were provided, the mean reaction time of the CI group was 512 msec compared with 317 msec for the NH group, and this difference was significant (p < 0.001). The provision of contextual cues speeded reaction times for both groups (semantic condition), indicating that top-down processing aided both groups in their search for a focused item. However, even with both prosodic and contextual cues, the CI users' processing times remained slower, compared with the NH group, with mean reaction times of 385 msec for the CI users but 232 msec for the NH listeners (p < 0.001). Prelingually deaf CI users' processing of prosodic cues is less efficient than that of their NH peers, as evidenced by slower reaction times to targets in phoneme monitoring. The provision of contextual cues speeded reaction times for both NH and CI groups, although the CI users were slower in responding than the NH group. These findings contribute to our understanding of how CI users employ/integrate prosodic and semantic cues in speech processing.

Signed Names in Japanese Sign Language: Linguistic and Cultural Analyses

This article describes the types of signed names given and used by deaf users of Japanese Sign Language. Drawing from a dataset of 216 signed names, we identify and describe nine strategies for signed name formation. Notably, seven of these represent written Japanese surnames. We explain how language contact with written Japanese characters (kanji) and syllabograms (kana) gives rise to a distinctive set of naming strategies. We further discuss the culture of literacy in Japan that emphasizes the written forms of surnames and consider its influential role in Japanese deaf education when sustained contact between many deaf people made naming a central concern.

Tradução cultural em educação: experiências da diferença em escritas de surdos

Este artigo apresenta uma investigação sobre narrativas de autoria surda destinadas ao público juvenil e adulto, as quais circulam no Brasil através de livros escritos em português. Considerando a pesquisa em dez livros (MÜLLER, 2012), de diferentes gêneros textuais, que se aproximam pela constituição do espaço biográfico, objetiva-se desenvolver uma análise discursiva e documental, buscando responder como e que marcas culturais surdas são produzidas pelos autores em suas narrativas. A investigação do material empírico, que tematiza as dificuldades vivenciadas, também expressas através da escrita, possibilita evidenciar as principais marcas culturais surdas: a narrativa da experiência de si e a identidade surda como uma diferença. Cabe salientar que narrar-se em uma segunda língua, neste caso, em português, por surdos usuários de Língua Brasileira de Sinais (Libras), possibilita traduzir-se em outras culturas, legitimando o discurso surdo e potencializando a sua cultura através da visibilidade e da difusão cultural possibilitada por essas obras. Os livros, aqui também entendidos como artefatos culturais, constituem-se recurso em um território de reivindicações e de negociações político-pedagógicas. Vinculado aos Estudos Culturais em Educação e aos Estudos Surdos, este trabalho dá continuidade a e consolida pesquisas sobre cultura surda e educação; também problematiza relações de poder envolvidas na construção de significados, sobretudo no campo da educação, aqui entendida como um processo de condução da vida social e individual dos sujeitos. Esta investigação integra as pesquisas desenvolvidas no projeto Produção, Circulação e Consumo da Cultura Surda Brasileira.

Å være til stede på en god måte: Tegnspråktolkers refleksjoner rundt å jobbe i Tolk på arbeidsplass-ordningen

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; This article describes some of the findings of a study whose aim was to shed light upon Norway’s Workplace Interpreting Scheme (TPA), which gives deaf sign language users the right to interpretation in the workplace. The study consists of qualitative interviews with a sample of interpreters who work in the scheme in its various forms. At issue was how interpreters experience being an interpreter in these settings, with the research question: How do professional, ethical, and practical aspects of workplace interpreting influence interpreters’ reflections on questions of language and role?&#x0D; An earlier evaluation of the Workplace Interpreting Scheme (ECON, 2004) asked deaf and hearing users of the scheme whether they thought the scheme was an appropriate and satisfactory approach to workplace interpreting. The responses in both cases were generally very positive, with only one negative outcome being identified. However, this evaluation did not include the interpreters involved in the scheme. We believe that the interpreter possesses much valuable experience that can shed more light on various important aspects of the scheme and its consequences.&#x0D; The data were comprised of qualitative interviews with 12 interpreters who work in various organizational forms of the scheme. The interviews were video-recorded and later transcribed. Analysis of the data using Grounded Theory produced several themes that were then analyzed in more depth.&#x0D; One theme emerged, that of “being present in a good way”, that seemed to be a common thread binding together several other themes. This theme encapsulated an overarching ideal common to the expressions of all our respondents. It expresses the challenges to that ideal that are inherent in the interpreter’s work, especially that of feeling as if one is often in the way or that one is a “foreign body”, and of representing one’s clients and their message accurately to the other party.&#x0D; Among the other themes described in the article is an examination of the ECON report’s only negative finding; that of the scheme being a crutch for hearing people that lessened their need to use or learn sign language. The question is posed here in terms of whether this is evidence of audism in such environments. Supporting evidence for this view is found in a discussion of language use in the workplace and the question of bilingualism, and of the interpreter’s expectations in this regard.&#x0D; The article also discusses a related topic, that is, how interpreters’ relationships with others in the workplace are influenced by the perception of their role. Interpreters’ freedom to act, as well as their lack thereof, proves to be an important topic: A variable standard positioned on an ethical spectrum provides a source of conflict for respondents in both types of settings we examine. We argue that a more nuanced ethical practice is called for, and note that such practice decisions must not be made unilaterally by the institutions that regulate the interpreting field, but in cooperation with the user organizations served.&#x0D; Seeing and being seen encompasses a single phenomenon from two very different perspectives. On the one hand, the interpreter’s vantage point makes him or her the only party who can fully “see” both sides, and as such, the one in the best position to see why communication works and why it sometimes falls apart. Interpreters struggle with a feeling of powerlessness when they see things they consider unjust. On the other hand, being seen refers both to the impossible ideal of the interpreter’s invisibility and to the concept of the “courtesy stigma” to which the interpreter, by the nature of his or her profession, is subject.&#x0D; After a discussion of the findings, we conclude with implications for research, education and practice in a quickly evolving interpreting profession.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

IJARCCE - Computer and Communication Engineering

People who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and Visually Impaired User also may have challenges communicating with others via spoken words for and may have challenges being aware of audio events in their environments. Blind person also face problem like deaf ,they can't see words or message. This is especially true in public places, which may not have accessible ways of communicating announcements and other audio events. In this paper, the design and evolution of a mobile sound transcription tool for the deaf and hard-of-hearing is elaborated. Transcriptions include dialog and descriptions of environmental sounds. The transcriber is a multilingual transcriber who listens to the audio and sends the converted text message to the server, the server then using the IP address of the user sends it to the user and Transcriber also message is converted into audio blind person able to listen this message. so Communication done by this System for Blind and Deaf Users .If the user is not logged into the server then the message is stored in the server database and sent when the user logs in.

Towards Communication and Information Access for Deaf People

In tightly circumscribed communication situations an interactive system resident on a mobile device can assist Deaf people with their communication and information needs. The Deaf users considered here use South African Sign Language and information is conveyed by a collection of pre-recorded video clips and images. The system was developed according to our method of community-based co-design. We present several stages of the development as a series of case studies and highlight our experience. The first stage involved ethnographically inspired methods such as cultural probes. In the next stage we co-designed a medical consultation system that was ultimately dropped for technical reasons. A smaller system was developed for pharmaceutical dispensing and successfully implemented and tested. It now awaits deployment in an actual pharmacy. We also developed a preliminary authoring tool to tackle the problem of content generation for interactive computer literacy training. We are also working on another medical health information tool. We intend that a generic authoring tool be able to generate mobile applications for all of these scenarios. These mobile applications bridge communication gaps for Deaf people via accessible and affordable assistive technology.

Non-fluent aphasia in deaf user of Indian Sign Language

The current study describes aphasia in a deaf user of Indian Sign Language (ISL). One congenitally deaf adult with LHD was evaluated for signs of aphasia. The tools used were Aphasia Diagnostic Battery in Indian Sign Language (ADB in ISL), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) investigation, linguistic, and neurobehavioral profile. The results of all investigative procedures revealed signs and symptoms consistent with non-fluent aphasia specifically Broca’s aphasia. The data from ISL in brain damaged individual further emphasize the role of left hemisphere in sign language processing.

An approach to generate and embed sign language video tracks into multimedia contents

Deaf people have serious problems to access information due to their inherent difficulties to deal with spoken and written languages. This work tries to address this problem by proposing a solution for automatic generation and insertion of sign language video tracks into captioned digital multimedia content. Our solution can process a subtitle stream and generate the sign language track in real-time. Furthermore, it has a set of mechanisms that exploit human computation to generate and maintain their linguistic constructions. The solution was instantiated for the Digital TV, Web and Digital Cinema platforms and evaluated through a set of experiments with deaf users.

Neuroanatomical profiles of deafness in the context of native language experience.

The study of congenitally deaf adult humans provides an opportunity to examine neuroanatomical plasticity resulting from altered sensory experience. However, attributing the source of the brain's structural variance in the deaf is complicated by the fact that deaf individuals also differ in their language experiences (e.g., sign vs spoken), which likely influence brain anatomy independently. Although the majority of deaf individuals in the United States are born to hearing parents and are exposed to English, not American Sign Language (ASL) as their first language, most studies on deafness have been conducted with deaf native users of ASL (deaf signers). This raises the question of whether observations made in deaf signers can be generalized. Using a factorial design, we compared gray (GMV) and white (WMV) matter volume in deaf and hearing native users of ASL, as well as deaf and hearing native users of English. Main effects analysis of sensory experience revealed less GMV in the deaf groups combined (compared with hearing groups combined) in early visual areas and less WMV in a left early auditory region. The interaction of sensory experience and language experience revealed that deaf native users of English had fewer areas of anatomical differences than did deaf native users of ASL (each compared with their hearing counterparts). For deaf users of ASL specifically, WMV differences resided in language areas such as the left superior temporal and inferior frontal regions. Our results demonstrate that cortical plasticity resulting from deafness depends on language experience and that findings from native signers cannot be generalized.

Surdos e acessibilidade: análise de um ambiente virtual de ensino e aprendizagem

A Educação a Distância (EaD) possui potencial para ampliar o acesso à educação. No entanto, ela tem sido incipiente ao tratar das necessidades específicas do público surdo. Isso se deve em parte pela abordagem superficial em relação à acessibilidade nos Ambientes Virtuais de Ensino e Aprendizagem (AVEA). O presente artigo teve como objetivo avaliar a acessibilidade de um AVEA para usuários surdos, através de um estudo de caso. A avaliação foi realizada por uma ferramenta automática e por meio de avaliação subjetiva humana. Pelas evidências dos resultados das abordagens de avaliação, fica aparente a diferença entre os métodos em termos de efetividade, eficiência e utilidade. Visto suas características complementares, recomenda-se o uso concomitante das técnicas.

Word production errors in children with developmental language impairments.

This review focuses on the errors that children with developmental language impairments make on three types of word production tasks: lexical retrieval, the elicitation of derivationally complex forms and the repetition of non-sense forms. The studies discussed in this review come principally from children with specific language impairment, and from children who are English-speakers or deaf users of British sign language. It is argued that models of word production need to be able to account for the data presented here, and need to have explanatory power across both modalities (i.e. speech and sign).

Densidade de informação, complexidade fonológica e suas implicações para a organização de glossários de termos técnicos da língua de sinais brasileira

In this paper we present partial results obtained through the analysis of technical terms in Libras. The present research was inspired by the need to of the Letras-Libras undergraduate program at UFSC according to visual aspects of a signed language. Trying to match the specific visual and spatial features of Libras, the initial proposal was to organize the glossary database according to the parameters of handshape and sign location. The complexity of this task evidenced the need for a mapping of the phonological and morphological structure of the lexical items that compose the glossary that could be used as more efficient filters for the retrieval of items and for ordering the entries. The proposed analysis showed several aspects that require a more thorough inquiry especially due to the need presenting filters that match deaf users needs. This text shows some partial results emphasizing the mapping of sign location as well as of movement in terminological units and results of a comparison between out data from the Letras-Libras glossary with general libras data. Due to the expected higher information density of technical language (cf. Koch & Oesterreicher, 1994) and the functional iconicity postulated by Givon (1995), the technical terms in Libras showed a higher phonological complexity in composition (clear majority of signs is bimanual) and realization (all with movement) resulting in the need to use other categories for filtering a refine search or for ordering the glossary.

Densidade de informação, complexidade fonológica e suas implicações para a organização de glossários de termos técnicos da língua de sinais brasileira

In this paper we present partial results obtained through the analysis of technical terms in Libras. The present research was inspired by the need to of the Letras-Libras undergraduate program at UFSC according to visual aspects of a signed language. Trying to match the specific visual and spatial features of Libras, the initial proposal was to organize the glossary database according to the parameters of handshape and sign location. The complexity of this task evidenced the need for a mapping of the phonological and morphological structure of the lexical items that compose the glossary that could be used as more efficient filters for the retrieval of items and for ordering the entries. The proposed analysis showed several aspects that require a more thorough inquiry especially due to the need presenting filters that match deaf users needs. This text shows some partial results emphasizing the mapping of sign location as well as of movement in terminological units and results of a comparison between out data from the Letras-Libras glossary with general libras data. Due to the expected higher information density of technical language (cf. Koch &amp; Oesterreicher, 1994) and the functional iconicity postulated by Givón (1995), the technical terms in Libras showed a higher phonological complexity in composition (clear majority of signs is bimanual) and realization (all with movement) resulting in the need to use other categories for filtering a refine search or for ordering the glossary.

Enhancing Musical Experience for the Hearing-Impaired Using Visual and Haptic Displays

This article addresses the broad question of understanding whether and how a combination of tactile and visual information could be used to enhance the experience of music by the hearing impaired. Initially, a background survey was conducted with hearing-impaired people to find out the techniques they used to “listen” to music and how their listening experience might be enhanced. Information obtained from this survey and feedback received from two profoundly deaf musicians were used to guide the initial concept of exploring haptic and visual channels to augment a musical experience. The proposed solution consisted of a vibrating “Haptic Chair” and a computer display of informative visual effects. The Haptic Chair provided sensory input of vibrations via touch by amplifying vibrations produced by music. The visual display transcoded sequences of information about a piece of music into various visual sequences in real time. These visual sequences initially consisted of abstract animations corresponding to specific features of music such as beat, note onset, tonal context, and so forth. In addition, because most people with impaired hearing place emphasis on lip reading and body gestures to help understand speech and other social interactions, their experiences were explored when they were exposed to human gestures corresponding to musical input. Rigorous user studies with hearing-impaired participants suggested that musical representation for the hearing impaired should focus on staying as close to the original as possible and is best accompanied by conveying the physics of the representation via an alternate channel of perception. All the hearing-impaired users preferred either the Haptic Chair alone or the Haptic Chair accompanied by a visual display. These results were further strengthened by the fact that user satisfaction was maintained even after continuous use of the system over a period of 3 weeks. One of the comments received from a profoundly deaf user when the Haptic Chair was no longer available (“I am going to be deaf again”), poignantly expressed the level of impact it had made. The system described in this article has the potential to be a valuable aid in speech therapy, and a user study is being carried out to explore the effectiveness of the Haptic Chair for this purpose. It is also expected that the concepts presented in this paper would be useful in converting other types of environmental sounds into a visual display and/or a tactile input device that might, for example, enable a deaf person to hear a doorbell ring, footsteps approaching from behind, or a person calling him or her, or to make understanding conversations or watching television less stressful. Moreover, the prototype system could be used as an aid in learning to play a musical instrument or to sing in tune. This research work has shown considerable potential in using existing technology to significantly change the way the deaf community experiences music. We believe the findings presented here will add to the knowledge base of researchers in the field of human–computer interaction interested in developing systems for the hearing impaired.

A Formal Language to Describe and Animate Signs in Brazilian Sign Language

In this paper, we propose the definition of a formal, expressive and consistent language to describe signs in Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS). This language allows the definition of all parameters (phonemes) of a sign and from this definition an animation is generated based on a 3D humanoid avatar. The proposed language is also flexible in the sense that it has mechanisms to include new parameters (or phonemes) “on the fly”. In order to provide a case study for the proposed language, a human computation system for collaborative construction of a LIBRAS vocabulary was also developed. This system, called WikiLIBRAS, allows deaf users and LIBRAS interpreters to describe signs and generate animations for signs in LIBRAS. Some preliminary tests with Brazilian deaf users and LIBRAS interpreters were also performed to evaluate the proposal. Our preliminary evaluation indicates that the proposed language can represent a significant number of signs in LIBRAS and WikiLIBRAS users can generate signs in LIBRAS more productively than 3D designers.

Representaciones sociales de la salud sexual de adolescentes sordos y oyentes en la ciudad de Bogotá

Objective . To describe and analyze the structure and content of the social representations of sexual health in three groups of adolescents: those who are deaf, those who use Colombian sign language (SLC), those with hearing, and deaf users of spoken Spanish, with the aim of considering the sexual health of populations in conditions of vulnerability, and their application in the area of public health. Method . A process-oriented interpretative qualitative study was carried out, which employed analytical techniques using networks of associations, interviews and drawings. Results . Different representations of sexual health were found among the adolescents evaluated: those who were deaf, and users of SLC focused their representations on care of

Deaf People as British Sign Language Teachers: Experiences and Aspirations

Little research has been undertaken into the profession of British Sign Language (BSL) teaching, despite a huge increase in the number of BSL classes offered over the past twenty years. Following the introduction of Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills standards in 2007, BSL teachers working in ‘further education’ (FE) colleges were required to hold formal teaching qualifications for the first time. Therefore, it is timely to investigate the impact of these changes on the teaching of BSL in the five years since their introduction. This new framework offered the opportunity to greatly enhance BSL teaching through the development of professional skills among BSL teachers but the stark reality is that this has not occurred. This article draws on two research projects that investigated the teaching qualifications held by BSL teachers, their career and professional development aspirations and their views on the training opportunities currently available to deaf sign language users. The research highlighted that there is a need to improve access to relevant information, establish and strengthen peer support networks as well as to establish a designated career path for BSL teachers. Although there are a number of training programmes by which teachers can achieve these new minimum core requirements, very few are specifically tailored to the pedagogic needs of deaf people wishing to gain these qualifications. The potential impact of recent government proposals for teacher qualifications in the FE sector will also be addressed, together with the likely consequences for those wishing to train as BSL teachers.

Automatic generation of Brazilian sign language windows for digital TV systems

Abstract Deaf people have serious difficulties accessing information. The support for sign language (their primary means of communication) is rarely addressed in information and communication technologies. Furthermore, there is a lack of works related to machine translation for sign language in real-time and open-domain scenarios, such as TV. To minimize these problems, in this paper, we propose an architecture for machine translation to Brazilian sign language (LIBRAS) and its integration, implementation and evaluation for digital TV systems, a real-time and open-domain scenario. The system, called LibrasTV, allows the LIBRAS windows to be generated and displayed automatically from a closed caption input stream in Brazilian Portuguese. LibrasTV also uses some strategies, such as low time consuming, text-to-gloss machine translation and LIBRAS dictionaries to minimize the computational resources needed to generate the LIBRAS windows in real-time. As a case study, we implemented a prototype of LibrasTV for the Brazilian digital TV system and performed some tests with Brazilian deaf users to evaluate it. Our preliminary evaluation indicated that the proposal is efficient, as long as its delays and bandwidth are low. In addition, as previously mentioned in the literature, avatar-based approaches are not the first choice for the majority of deaf users, who prefer human translation. However, when human interpreters are not available, our proposal is presented as a practical and feasible alternative to fill this gap.

Points de vue « etic » et « emic » pour la description de la surdité

Deaf users of sign languages have developed particular representations of deafness, where deaf and hearing are two distinct language standards. The spread of these representations among the hearings and its objectification by a growing number of researchers have contributed to the emergence of a “cultural and linguistic difference” paradigm for the analysis of deafness by the social sciences. This contrasts with the “impairment” paradigm that interprets deafness as an individual misfortune, as an illness to be healed. Through an analysis in terms of emic and etic representations, this article invites to the culturalization of each of these paradigms in order to provide a better understanding of their construction and transmission. I will conclude by exploring the gates made possible when the equality among languages and “speakers” is considered, allowing relationships between deaf and hearing people to go beyond the field of otherness to gain identity.