Spatial language in English and American Sign Language (ASL) was compared by asking 10 native signers and 10 English speakers to solve a set of spatial puzzles. The study highlights the ramifications of a linguistic system in which space itself is used to convey spatial information compared to one that conveys the same information via an auditory…

Reviews Thomas A. Sebeok's "Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics." This book teaches the reader to use terms like "sign,""icon,""index," and "symbol" with greater precision and effect. Sebeok's work spans more than three decades and strongly contributes to a number of related disciplines, especially…

The requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) concerning public school building accessibility are summarized. Requirements discussed include facility design and braille and raised letter signs. (DB)

Conventional sign language used by a community of signers over generations was compared with gestures invented by a deaf child over a period of years and with gestures invented by nonsigning hearing individuals on the spot. Findings suggest that an individual can introduce standards of well-formedness, but construction of standards requires…

This discussion examines the sociological implications of poor interactions in families in which a member is deaf. The paper recommends bringing hearing families together with the deaf community and using American Sign Language to facilitate functional symbolic interaction in hearing/deaf families. (Author/DB)

The accuracy of transliterated messages produced by sign language interpreters was studied. Causes of interpreter errors fell into three main categories: misperception of the source message, lack of recognition of source forms, and failure to identify a target language equivalent. (12 references) (Author/LB)

A survey of Australian teachers of the deaf and their classroom communicative practices found that many used speech with sign and most used Australasian Signed English, with most able to demonstrate that they could correctly encode the system. (six references) (Author/CB)

A six-year-old nonvocal girl with autism who had acquired a variety of signs and imitative responses consistently failed to acquire a tact (labeling) repertoire. When procedures to transfer stimulus control from verbal to nonverbal stimuli were implemented, the subject quickly learned to tact all 18 target stimuli. (Author/DB)

A language arts teacher of junior high students with deafness or hearing impairments familiarized her students with "Romeo and Juliet" by telling the story in speech and signs, exploring the characters's personalities, reviewing vocabulary, putting the characters into contemporary situations, and directing the students in a full-scale…

Seven deaf elementary school students read fables in printed English that had previously been summarized in American Sign Language (ASL) and read other fables without the intervention. The ASL summary technique increased the quantity and quality of students'"retelling scores"; it also improved readers' comprehension of the moral lessons of the…

Categories of deafness are defined not in terms of degree of hearing loss but of consequences for the deaf person. The culture and language, British Sign Language, of a largely hidden population are discussed. (40 references) (LB)

This article presents initial guidelines for combining current conventions for analyzing sign language and spoken language, to represent signs accompanied by speech. Rules are outlined for transcribing utterance groupings in terms of their context, inflection, sign gloss, spoken component, and phonetic transcription. (JDD)

Guidelines are offered to schools and communities for developing activities of a yearly Deaf Awareness Week. Topics covered should include general information about deafness; common myths and misunderstandings; information about sign languages; technologies available to deaf people; interpreting; and interaction among deaf and hearing students.…

Presents an overview of some factors that affect the culture and linguistic minority status of the deaf. These factors include language and the deaf world; the deaf community; bilingual and multicultural education of the deaf; and demographic aspects of hearing impairment. (Author/VWL)

A study of 10 typical women investigated the effect of fingerspelling task length on temporal characteristics and perceived naturalness of speech produced during simultaneous communication. Speech produced during simultaneous communication was rated as less natural and demonstrated increased interword interval, diphthong, work, and sentence…