Tactile Sign Research Articles

Giving voice by doing with not doing through: Collaborating with tactile sign language interpreters in interpretative phenomenological analysis research involving older deafblind people

There is a dearth of qualitative research into deafblind people’s experiences, impoverishing our understanding of the phenomenon and contributing to deafblind people’s social exclusion. As an approach which seeks to amplify the perspectives of participants from so called ‘vulnerable groups’, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) appears ideally suited to qualitative research exploring the experiences of the deafblind population. However, one strategy for facilitating the inclusion of deafblind people in qualitative research is the involvement of tactile sign language interpreters, and some have argued that phenomenological methods, such as IPA, be avoided where interpreters are involved. Nevertheless, those promoting IPA encourage flexibility and creativity in its use. Using the example of a UK based study exploring vulnerability among older deafblind people, this paper illustrates how tactile sign language interpreters were involved in IPA research. The criteria for evaluating the management of interpreters in qualitative research devised by Squires are used to frame critical reflection on the necessary adaptation of IPA, and the authors contend that IPA study involving tactile sign language interpreters can successfully give voice to older deafblind people when careful attention is paid to the interpreters’ credentials, role, and positionality, and it is acknowledged that IPA research is completed with not through the interpreters.

Multimodal Languaging in a Signing Community in the Bay Islands of Honduras

Abstract: Deaf-sighted, deaf-blind, and hearing-sighted people have been interacting within a small community in the Bay Islands of Honduras for over a century (Ali 2023; Ali and Braithwaite 2020). In this article, we sketch the history of the community and the ways in which signers make use of their own and their interlocutor's bodies to co-construct meaning. Based on a short conversation between two deaf-blind signers, we identify mechanisms used to regulate turn-taking, including some which are familiar from other visual and tactile sign languages, and some which are rather novel in the literature. We show that signers make use of visual and tactile-proprioceptive channels, bearing in mind, but not entirely determined by, the sensorial orientations of their interlocutors. We conclude that this way of languaging is not a visual sign language and not yet fully adapted to the tactile modality, nor is it undeveloped or disordered in any other sense. Rather, we believe that this case demonstrates the ways in which human languaging makes use of multiple modalities and adapts to the needs of each interactional context. While linguists have sometimes been inclined to classify languages into neat modality boxes (auditory-vocal, visual-gestural, tactile-gestural), this analysis supports Henner and Robinson's (2023) calls for what they term a crip linguistics , which embraces disabled ways of languaging, rejects ideas of disordered language, and recognizes languaging as multimodal.

Taktilni znakovni jezik slepogluvih osoba

Introduction. Deaf-blindness is a dual sensory impairment and adversely affects different areas of a person's functioning. Thus, there is a need for an individualized approach to education and rehabilitation, as well as specific services that facilitate learning, participation, and social inclusion. The study of this phenomenon is accompanied by challenges arising from the lack of consensus on the definition of deaf-blindness, the heterogeneity of the population, and the lack of reliable tests and tools for assessment. Furthermore, the use of traditional procedures that are often based only on the determination of sensory functioning, as well as insufficiently efficient and untested working methods, hinder the development of communication with a person who is deafblind. Objectives. The aim of this paper was to analyze the specific communication methods of people with deaf-blindness and, in particular, to analyze and describe tactile sign language. Methods. The service of the Consortium of Libraries of Serbia for unified acquisition - KOBSON and Google Scholar Advanced Search were used for the search and analysis of relevant studies. Searches were performed using the following services/ aggregators: Ebsco host, ScienceDirect, and Wiley Inter Science. Results. Communication of people with deaf-blindness can occur through a variety of modalities: speech, sign language, finger alphabet/alphabet, manual alphabet/manual alphabet, Lorm's alphabet, palm writing, Tadoma method, written language, Braille, enlarged print, tactile sign language. In recent studies, authors emphasize the need to develop a unique tactile sign language as a natural language of persons who are deafblind from birth.

Is fluoroscopy-free single-use flexible ureteroscopy a feasible treatment for kidney stones with abnormal renal anatomy?

ObjectiveTo evaluate the feasibility of fluoroscopy-free single-use flexible ureteroscopy procedure in the treatment of kidney stones with abnormal renal anatomy compared to normal renal anatomy. MethodsForty patients with abnormal (Group A) and 80 patients with normal (Group B) renal anatomy who had 10–20 mm renal stones were included. They were treated with LithoVue single-use flexible ureteroscopy (Boston Scientific, Marlborough, MA, USA) after ureteric dilatation by two different size semi-rigid ureteroscopes. This technique was chosen as the aim was to exclude any ureteric pathology (e.g., stone or stricture), confirm the placement of a safe guidewire, avoid balloon dilatation of the ureter, and achieve safe insertion of a 12 Fr, 35/45 cm ureteric access sheath with optical and tactile sign and without fluoroscopy image for guidance. ResultsThe mean ages were 43 years and 45 years in group A and group B, respectively. The mean stone burden was 14.62 (standard deviation: 5.35) mm3 and 14.79 (standard deviation: 4.58) mm3 in Group A and Group B, respectively. There is no significant difference between both groups according to the mean operative time, hospital stay, or stone-free rate. The stone-free rate was about 93% in both groups when the stone size was between 10 mm and 15 mm, and less than 54% when the stone size was more than 15 mm to 20 mm. In the majority of cases (80% in Group A and 92.5% in Group B), we completed the procedure without fluoroscopy. The perioperative complication rates were comparable in the two groups. ConclusionFluoroscopy-free single-use flexible ureteroscopy, when performed by expert urologist, is a feasible treatment for pre-stented patients with kidney calculi of ≤15 mm with abnormal renal anatomy.

Meaning-making in tactile cross-signing context

Cross-linguistic studies of tactile sign language are still not widely performed internationally. For this study, four deafblind informants in two different tactile sign languages, Swedish Sign Language and Norwegian Sign Language, participated in the recording at a social and cultural workshop where they worked together to create a mutual understanding in their conversations. The study provides new information on how tactile and bodily signals are incorporated in dialogues where the speakers are not familiar with each other's signing. The results illuminate various tactile communicative strategies used in negotiating in cross-signing dialogues. By the selected analyzed examples, this study contributes to knowledge of how language and interaction skills are brought into the process of understanding each other, despite linguistic barriers.

Применение программы Aegisub в процессе обучения тифлокомментированию

Introduction. The global turn towards social inclusion implies an increase in the number of qualified personnel with the ability to solve diverse tasks in the areas of barrier-free communication – subtitling, audio description, sign language translation, as well as tactile sign translation. The purpose of the study is to identify the didactic potential of cross-platform applications in the process of learning audio description using the example of the Aegisub application. The relevance of the work is explained by the fact that at the present stage we can talk not only about such a linguist-audio describer’s task as professional possession of intercultural competence, but also about the free application in practice of various technical means for generating and transmitting audio commentaries, since the trend towards digitalization of society requires improving the competencies of specialists in the field of inclusion. Materials and Methods. As the research material, a fragment of the feature film “The Great Gatsby” in English with a professional polyphonic translation into Russian is used. To achieve this goal, the experimental method is used, as well as analysis and synthesis. Analysis. With the help of the Aegisub programme, even a not very prepared user can perform any actions related to the synchronization of the text and visual components of the multimedia commenting object. To confirm the thesis about the expediency of using the Aegisub application in the practice of teaching audio description, a pilot experiment was conducted in which nine participants were asked to complete the task of compiling audio description using the programme and without it. Results. Based on the results of the conducted research, it can be concluded that the introduction of specialized computer applications into the process of teaching audio description on an ongoing basis can become an effective way to form professional competencies of a specialist in the field of barrier-free communication.

Access to Interaction and Context Through Situated Descriptions: A Study of Interpreting for Deafblind Persons.

This article focuses on how to provide environmental descriptions of the context with the intent of creating access to information and dialogical participation for deafblind persons. Multimodal interaction is needed to communicate with deafblind persons whose combined sensory loss impedes their access to the environment and ongoing interaction. Empirical data of interpreting for deafblind persons are analyzed to give insight into how this task may be performed. All communicative activities vary due to their context, participants, and aim. In this study, our data are part of a cross-linguistic study of tactile sign language and were gathered during a guided tour for a deafblind group. The guided tour was tailored to a specific group (adult deafblind tactile signers and their interpreters) visiting one of the oldest cathedrals and pilgrim sites in Scandinavia, with interpreters following up the guide’s presentation and providing descriptions based on the given situation. The tour and the interpreters’ work were videotaped, and the ongoing interaction and communication have been studied through video-ethnographic methods and conversational analysis. The data have been investigated for the research question: What elements are involved in descriptions to provide deafblind individuals access to their environments? Theories from multimodality communicative studies are relevant for the ways tactile descriptions are presented and analyzed. Some of this is an investigation at a microlevel of interaction. An overall inspiration for this study is interaction studies with data from authentic formal and informal conversations and ways of analyzing embodied action and situated gestures in studies of human interaction. Also, concepts of “frontstage,” “backstage,” and “main conversation” are brought into our interpreter-mediated data to follow the role of building meaning in complex conversations. Theories on interaction are used in the analyses to illustrate the participating framework between the guide, the interpreter, the deafblind person, and the situated frame of their interaction. The study opens for a broader understanding of the repertoire of multimodal interaction and how such interaction may be handled as inputs in communication processes. This is of relevance for communication with deafblind persons, for professionals meeting blind and deafblind clients, and for knowledge of multimodal interaction in general.

Conveying Environmental Information to Deafblind People: A Study of Tactile Sign Language Interpreting

Many deafblind people use tactile sign language and interpreters in their daily lives. Because of their hearing and sight loss, the role of interpreters does not only involve translating the content expressed by other deaf or hearing people, but it also involves conveying environmental information (i.e., non-verbal communication regarding what is happening at a given moment to be able to understand the situation). This paper aims to contribute to the field of tactile sign language interpreting by describing how two tactile Swedish Sign Language interpreters convey environmental information to two deafblind women in a particular situation, that is, a guided visit to a cathedral with a hearing Norwegian speaker. We expect to find different strategies including the use of haptic signs (i.e., a system of signs articulated in the body of the deafblind person aimed to provide environmental and interactional information). After summarizing the small amount of existing research on the issue to date, we present our data and how they were annotated. Our analysis shows that a variety of strategies are used including using tactile Swedish Sign Language, using locative points to show locations with some type of contact with the body of deafblind individuals, depicting shapes on the palm of the hand of deafblind individuals, using objects to depict shapes, touching elements of the setting with the hands or with the feet such as surfaces, and walking around the place. Some of them are more frequent than others and some strategies are also used in combination, whereas others are used in isolation. We did not observe any use of haptic signs to convey environmental information in our data, which calls for further research on which criteria apply to use this strategy in a particular situation.

The language instinct in extreme circumstances: The transition to tactile Italian Sign Language (LISt) by Deafblind signers

Tactile sign languages used by Deafblind signers are most often acquired by signers competent in a visual sign language who can no longer rely on the grammatical system of the visual language as it is, since some of its features are lost due to the loss of vision. A natural question is which repair strategies are adopted to compensate for the loss of the grammatical features of the visual language that can no longer be perceived. We argue that the transformation of LIS (Italian Sign Language) into tactile Italian Sign Language (LISt) is constrained by grammatical principles, rather than reflecting communication strategies that in principle might compensate for the visual loss equally well. Certain innovations are introduced to carry over the grammatical features of LIS to LISt. Even when LISt undergoes processes that make it diverge from LIS, these processes are attested in other natural languages. For example, among the innovations unconsciously introduced by LISt signers we found an instance of cross-modal grammaticalization. Our research suggests that tactile languages have the potential of becoming complete grammatical systems, at least when they build on previous knowledge of a visual sign language.

Low cost real time braille keypad for communication

Visually impaired people find it challenging to use devices such as computers, and other digital/educational software like every normal person does in this technology driven world. Due to their inability to gainaccess to basic and vital information they sometimes feel excluded from the society and also limit their knowledge. Several attempts have beenmade in the recent years toimprove their communication methods such as tactile sign language, Braille glove, and Audioacces devices so on. This paper suggests an innovative assistive device, a Braille keypad, for the viually impaired that would help them use computers just like a normal person. The Braille keypad implements the Braille cells as 6 switches that can be pressed simultaneously based on the actual Braille combination in order to type a particular letter and words. The corresponding letters/words are displayed as well as can be heard by the user. A text to speech algorithm is implemented using puTTY software which would help the user confirm what he/she has typed is right. In this way it enables them to interact and communicate as well as use computers and mobile phones much like a normal person.

Conversion of Tactile Sign Language into English for Deaf/Dumb Interaction

Natural language is the way of communication for normal human beings which includes spoken language, written and body gestures i.e. head gesture, hand gestures, facial expressions and lip motion etc. On the other hand, speech and hearing-impaired people uses sign language for communication which is not understandable for normal people thus they face problems of communication in society. In this problem interpreters are required but the human interpreters are costly and are not an efficient solution. Thus, there is a need of system which will translate the sign language into normal language which will be understandable by normal. The system proposed and explained in the paper is an efficient solution to this problem. In the system, sign recognition is done using CAMSHIFT and P2DHHM algorithm followed by Haar Cascade Classifier. After sign recognition, the language technology techniques of POS tagging and LALR parser are used to convert recognized sign words into English sentence. Till date no any system has worked on sentence framing. Results shows that this system produces 92% of accurate result which will bridge the gap between impaired and Normal people.

Cochlear Implant Outcomes in Cochlea Nerve Aplasia and Hypoplasia.

To assess cochlear implant (CI) outcomes, and factors affecting outcomes, for children with aplasia/ hypoplasia of the cochlea nerve. We also developed a new grading system for the nerves of the internal auditory meatus (IAM) and cochlea nerve classification. Retrospective patient review. Tertiary referral hospital and cochlear implant program. Children 0 to 16 years inclusive with a CI who had absent/hypoplastic cochlea nerve on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Cochlear implant. MRI, trans-tympanic electrical auditory brainstem response, intraoperative electrical auditory brainstem response, Neural Response Telemetry, Categories of Auditory Perception score, Main mode of communication. Fifty CI recipients (26 males and 24 females) were identified, 21 had bilateral CIs, 27 had developmental delay. MRI showed cochlea nerve aplasia in 64 ears, hypoplasia in 25 ears, and a normal nerve in 11 ears. Main mode of communication was analyzed for 41 children: 21 (51%) used verbal language (15 speech alone, 5 speech plus some sign, 1 bilingual in speech and sign), and 20 (49%) used sign language (10 sign alone, 9 sign plus some speech, 1 tactile sign). Seventy-three percent of children used some verbal language. Cochlea nerve aplasia/ hypoplasia and developmental delay were both significant factors affecting main mode of communication. Categories of Auditory Performance scores were available for 59 CI ears; 47% with CN Aplasia (IAM nerve grades 0-III) and 89% with CN hypoplasia (IAM nerve grade IV) achieved Categories of Auditory Performance scores of 5 to 7 (some verbal understanding) (p = 0.003). Our results are encouraging and useful when counselling families regarding the likelihood of language outcomes and auditory understanding.

Diligence and Emotion: Knitting in Danish Golden Age Portraiture

Wealthy ladies knitting provide a recurrent motif of Danish middle-class portraiture of the first half of the nineteenth century. This article explores the cultural and social significance of these images, and how they represent the central values of the Danish Golden Age (c.1810–1850). Since knitting was an essential skill for all women, this motif has traditionally been explained as part of the realist turn in Danish art. This article takes a new approach by arguing that the knitting carries an emotional value which has yet to be discussed by scholars. Displaying socially appropriate emotions was one way in which the middle classes distinguished themselves from the aristocracy and lower classes. On the one hand, sitters remained calm and collected and therefore rational. On the other, they needed to show emotional warmth, which was an obligatory marker of a good citizen. In order to balance the coolness of their expression, the emotional content of portraits was transferred to their material elements. The knitting of stockings in portraits thus became a tactile sign of romantic and maternal love. A young woman knitting for her future husband, or mother making stockings for her children, produced emotionally invested tokens of love. As a key marker of homemade love, the emotional warmth of these Golden Age portraits was carried by knitting as a textile symbol of emotion.

A Low-Cost Open Source 3D-Printable Dexterous Anthropomorphic Robotic Hand with a Parallel Spherical Joint Wrist for Sign Languages Reproduction

We present a novel open-source 3D-printable dexterous anthropomorphic robotic hand specifically designed to reproduce Sign Languages’ hand poses for deaf and deaf-blind users. We improved the InMoov hand, enhancing dexterity by adding abduction/adduction degrees of freedom of three fingers (thumb, index and middle fingers) and a three-degrees-of-freedom parallel spherical joint wrist. A systematic kinematic analysis is provided. The proposed robotic hand is validated in the framework of the PARLOMA project. PARLOMA aims at developing a telecommunication system for deaf-blind people, enabling remote transmission of signs from tactile Sign Languages. Both hardware and software are provided online to promote further improvements from the community.

Polyvinyl chloride film local isometric heat treatment for hidden 3D printing on polymer packaging

ABSTRACTA method of 3D embossed printing is proposed where both point and line images can be printed on rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) shrink films without any consumables, such as paints, primers, dampening solutions, or washes. Embossed lettering and symbols on packaging are intended for people with poor vision, but capable of tactile marking recognition and reading Braille. This 3D printing is based on reversible deformation and stress relaxation in anisotropic glassy polymers by local isometric heat treatment of thermoplastic films under pressure. Films can be protected from counterfeiting by hidden markings due to time separation of information recording onto the film and displaying this information for visual or tactile reading. The results quantify the rate of internal stress relaxation in PVC shrink films at various stages of 3D printing, including tactile sign formation conditions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43046.

PARLOMA – A Novel Human-Robot Interaction System for Deaf-Blind Remote Communication

Deaf-blindness forces people to live in isolation. At present, there is no existing technological solution enabling two (or many) deaf-blind people to communicate remotely among themselves in tactile Sign Language (t-SL). When resorting to t-SL, deaf-blind people can communicate only with people physically present in the same place, because they are required to reciprocally explore their hands to exchange messages. We present a preliminary version of PARLOMA, a novel system to enable remote communication between deaf-blind persons. It is composed of a low-cost depth sensor as the only input device, paired with a robotic hand as the output device. Essentially, any user can perform hand-shapes in front of the depth sensor. The system is able to recognize a set of hand-shapes that are sent over the web and reproduced by an anthropomorphic robotic hand. PARLOMA can work as a “telephone” for deaf-blind people. Hence, it will dramatically improve the quality of life of deaf-blind persons. PARLOMA has been presented and supported by the main Italian deaf-blind association, Lega del Filo d'Oro. End users are involved in the design phase.

Social and private speech in an interpreted meeting of deafblind persons

The article explores how the distinction between egocentric and social speech affects the dynamics of interpreter-mediated interaction, during a meeting among five deafblind board members in Norway. Extracts from a videotape of the meeting were analysed, with a specific focus on two sequences of exchanges involving a board member (Inger), her interpreter and the rest of the group. Inger uses Norwegian Tactile Sign Language with her interpreter, who in turn uses spoken Norwegian and Norwegian Sign Language with the rest of the group. The analysis shows that, while most of Inger’s utterances were social and oriented to the other board members, some were of a private nature and directed only to herself. The interpreter evaluated Inger’s communicative project constantly and acted accordingly, interpreting the socially oriented utterances but not the private utterances. Based on these findings, the interpreter’s performance is discussed in relation not only to professional ethics but also to monological and dialogical perspectives on language and interpreting.

The Plantar Tactual Perception Sign Model to Provide Information on Walk Roads for the Visually Impaired

Background : The information delivered to the visually impaired for their walks is mostly provided in the form of tactile or aural information; but it is, in fact, hard for them to acquire the information for their movement. Thus, this study presents information of pedestrian roads needed for their walk by the types of walk roads as tactual perception signs. And this is also a foundational research to provide information on walk roads through a plantar tactual perception sign system. Methods : This study adopts literature review, a survey, and an experiment. First of all, the researcher investigates the concept and current status of the visually impaired and information on walk roads and considers theories regarding tactual perception and plantar tactual perception to find out ways for application. And based on this, the study conducts research on types of walks and extracts mental images that the visually impaired have about the types in order to design a plantar tactual perception walk road information sign model. Next, based on the research on the types of walk roads and also on mental image extraction, the study suggests its plantar tactual perception walk road information sign model. Results : Converting plantar tactual perception walk road information into signs is meaningful in two ways. First, the study performs braille arrangement on the information of 18 types of walk roads to make it into a model of a tactile sign system applied to plantar. Second, this study can be foundational research that presents a system that can provide both acquired and inborn visually impaired people with information on walk roads through a tactile sign system. Conclusion : In order to provide the visually impaired with plantar tactile walk road information, this study has designed different the types of sign models according to the types of walk roads. Also, through the arrangement of a braille structure, a sign system has been developed that can help the visually impaired to form information on the types of walk roads into their own mental images.

Characteristics of a Danish population of adults with acquired deafblindness receiving rehabilitation services

The aim of this study is to report on the characteristics of a population of 916 individuals with acquired deafblindness receiving national Danish counselling and rehabilitation services. Age, gender, prevalence, social status, and communication mode are some of the data included in this study. Results show that 70% of the population was older than 79 years, 15% was between 65 and 79 years, and 15% of the population was younger than 65 years. Oral speech was used by 86%, sign language by 10%, and tactile sign language by 4%. Among individuals younger than 65 years, less than 50% was employed or in education. Results are discussed with respect to the organization of the Danish counselling and rehabilitation service system.

Variations in tactile signing – the case of one-handed signing

Tactile sign language is a variety of a national sign language. Tactile signing among persons with deafblindness also includes some minor variations. Early analyses of tactile Swedish Sign Language (e.g. Mesch 1998, 2001) show how interactants use both their hands in tactile communication in two different positions: dialogue position and monologue position. This paper examines the signing variations that partially or functionally blind signers encounter when using one hand to communicate with each other in a conversation dyad in what is one of the most advanced types of sign language communication. In tactile one-handed signing, the signer uses her right hand both for producing and receiving signs, while the addressee uses her left hand not only for receiving but also for producing signs after turn-taking, even though it is the non-dominant hand and, therefore, is not normally used to produce one-handed signs. In this study, conversation analysis was conducted on the discourse of four groups.The results show that some variations depend on the linguistic background of individuals and their everyday communication. A com-parative study of a two-handed and a one-handed system is then presented, focusing on issues of simplicity, flexibility, turn-taking, and feedback. Some results showing changes in the sign structures of both communication types are also presented