Research

Perceptions and preferences: Deaf ASL-signing users' insights on video elements, styles and layouts

ABSTRACT: Video components are a central element of user interfaces that deliver content in a signed language (SL), but the potential of video components extends beyond content accessibility. Sign language videos may be designed as user interface elements: layered with interactive features to create navigation cues, page headings, and menu options. To be effective for signing users, novel sign language video-rich interfaces require informed design choices across many parameters. To align with the specific needs and shared conventions of the Deaf community and other ASL-signers in this context, we present a user study involving deaf ASL-signers who interacted with an array of designs for sign language video elements. Their responses offer some insights into how the Deaf community may perceive and prefer video elements to be designed, positioned, and implemented to guide user experiences. Through a qualitative analysis, we take initial steps toward understanding deaf ASL-signers' perceptions of a set of emerging design principles, paving the way for future SL-centric user interfaces containing customized video elements and layouts with primary consideration for signed language-related usage and requirements.

Bilingual curriculum materials supporting signed language as a first language for Deaf students: The integration of technology, learning and teaching

ABSTRACT: Considering Deaf children and adults as bilingual - their first language is a Signed Language (SL) and the second language is learned via print - provides professionals with a paradigm to be used for creating better learning opportunities. In this paper, Greek Sign Language ((G)SL)) [1] as a first language (L1) is the base language we use to present certain bilingual methodological teaching and learning considerations. This work is the result of a long journey from the initial thinking of the American Sign Language Curriculum and its influence on the development of the (G)SL curriculum in Greece. The paper offers discussion of innovative educational multimedia material that are easily accessed via online web portals, developed for teaching (G)SL as an L1 to pre-school and primary school Deaf children. In this work, SL as L1 is a resource that fully enables Deaf children to learn an L2 via print, supporting their bilingual acquisition capabilities. In developing curricula and supporting materials, we consider two important foundational components: Deaf native signers and near native signers as language role models for Deaf children, parents and teachers; and the development and interaction with digital educational materials. Thus, collaboration between educational and technology professionals and members of the Deaf community is critical. This bilingual model can be incorporated into any SL. (G)SL) is used as a model to display innovative practices merging SL (L1), print (L2), technology and creative instructional and assessment materials, maximized by understanding the visual nature of SL and its advantages for school learning. The penultimate goal is Deaf students to become successful bilingual learners to fully function in the world today and tomorrow. [1] In this paper, we will use (G)SL to indicate that we are discussing Greek Signed Language but content and technology can be used for any SL.

Deaf children’s ASL vocabulary and ASL syntax knowledge supports English knowledge

ABSTRACT: The current study contributes empirical data to our understanding of how knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL) syntax aids reading print English for deaf children who are bilingual and bimodal in ASL and English print. The first analysis, a conceptual replication of Hoffmeister ( 2000), showed that performance on the American Sign Language Assessment Instrument correlated with the Sanford Achievement Test-Reading Comprehension (SAT-RC) and the Rhode Island Test of Language Structures (RITLS, Engen & Engen, 1983). The second analysis was a quantile regression using ASL assessments to predict English print abilities. Different ASL skills were important for English reading comprehension (SAT-RC) versus understanding English syntax (RITLS); the relationship between ASL skills and English print performance also varied for students at different English print ability levels. Strikingly, knowledge of ASL syntax was robustly correlated with knowledge of English syntax at all ability levels. Our findings provide novel and strong evidence for the impact of ASL on the development of English literacy.

The development and evaluation of a new ASL text comprehension task

ABSTRACT: Being able to comprehend a language entails not only mastery of its syntax, lexicon, or phonology, but also the ability to use language to construct meaning, draw inferences, and make connections to world knowledge. However, most available assessments of American Sign Language (ASL) focus on mastery of lower level skills, and as a result little is known about development of higher-order ASL comprehension skills. In this paper, we introduce the American Sign Language Text Comprehension Task (ASL-CMP), a new assessment tool to measure ASL text comprehension ability in deaf children. We first administered the task to a group of deaf children with deaf parents (n = 105, ages 8–18 years) in order to evaluate the reliability and validity of the task, and to develop norms. We found that the ASL-CMP has acceptable levels of internal consistency, difficulty, and discriminability. Next, we administered the task to an additional group of deaf children with hearing parents (n = 251, ages 8–18 years), and found that the ASL-CMP is sensitive to expected patterns: older children have better ASL text comprehension skills, literal questions are generally easier to answer than inferential questions, and children with early exposure to ASL generally outperform those with delayed exposure. We conclude that the ASL-CMP task is reliable and valid and can be used to characterize ASL text comprehension skills in deaf children.

The development of American Sign Language–based analogical reasoning in signing deaf children

ABSTRACT: This article examines whether syntactic and vocabulary abilities in American Sign Language (ASL) facilitate 6 categories of language-based analogical reasoning. Method Data for this study were collected from 267 deaf participants, aged 7;6 (years;months) to 18;5. The data were collected from an ongoing study initially funded by the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences in 2010. The participants were given assessments of ASL vocabulary and syntax knowledge and a task of language-based analogies presented in ASL. The data were analyzed using mixed-effects linear modeling to first see how language-based analogical reasoning developed in deaf children and then to see how ASL knowledge influenced this developmental trajectory. Results Signing deaf children were shown to demonstrate language-based reasoning abilities in ASL consistent with both chronological age and home language environment. Notably, when ASL vocabulary and syntax abilities were statistically taken into account, these were more important in fostering the development of language-based analogical reasoning abilities than were chronological age and home language. We further showed that ASL vocabulary ability and ASL syntactic knowledge made different contributions to different analogical reasoning subconstructs. Conclusions ASL is a viable language that supports the development of language-based analogical reasoning abilities in deaf children.

Recent issues in the use of signed language assessments for diagnosis of language disorders in signing Deaf and Hard of Hearing children

ABSTRACT: In recent years, normed signed language assessments have become a useful tool for researchers, practitioners, and advocates. Nevertheless, there are limitations in their application, particularly for the diagnosis of language disorders, and learning disabilities. Here, we discuss some of the available normed, signed language assessments and some of their limitations. We have also provided information related to practices that should lead to improvement in the quality of signed language assessments.

Development of American Sign Language guidelines for K-12 academic assessments

ABSTRACT: The U.S. federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was enacted with goals of closing achievement gaps and providing all students with access to equitable and high-quality instruction. One requirement of ESSA is annual statewide testing of students in grades 3-8 and once in high school. Some students, including many deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students, are eligible to use test supports, in the form of accommodations and accessibility tools, during state testing. Although technology allows accommodations and accessibility tools to be embedded within a digital assessment system, the success of this approach depends on the ability of test developers to appropriately represent content in accommodated forms. The Guidelines for Accessible Assessment Project (GAAP) sought to develop evidence- and consensus-based guidelines for representing test content in American Sign Language. In this article, we present an overview of GAAP, review of the literature, rationale, qualitative and quantitative research findings, and lessons learned.

American Sign Language syntax and analogical reasoning skills are influenced by early acquisition and age of entry to signing schools for the deaf

ABSTRACT: Failing to acquire language in early childhood because of language deprivation is a rare and exceptional event, except in one population. Deaf children who grow up without access to indirect language through listening, speech-reading, or sign language experience language deprivation. Studies of Deaf adults have revealed that late acquisition of sign language is associated with lasting deficits. However, much remains unknown about language deprivation in Deaf children, allowing myths and misunderstandings regarding sign language to flourish. To fill this gap, we examined signing ability in a large naturalistic sample of Deaf children attending schools for the Deaf where American Sign Language (ASL) is used by peers and teachers. Ability in ASL was measured using a syntactic judgment test and language-based analogical reasoning test, which are two sub-tests of the ASL Assessment Inventory. The influence of two age-related variables were examined: whether or not ASL was acquired from birth in the home from one or more Deaf parents, and the age of entry to the school for the Deaf. Note that for non-native signers, this latter variable is often the age of first systematic exposure to ASL. Both of these types of age-dependent language experiences influenced subsequent signing ability. Scores on the two tasks declined with increasing age of school entry. The influence of age of starting school was not linear. Test scores were generally lower for Deaf children who entered the school of assessment after the age of 12. The positive influence of signing from birth was found for students at all ages tested (7;6-18;5 years old) and for children of all age-of-entry groupings. Our results reflect a continuum of outcomes which show that experience with language is a continuous variable that is sensitive to maturational age.

Acquiring English as a second language via print: The task for deaf children

ABSTRACT: Only a minority of profoundly deaf children read at age-level. We contend this reflects cognitive and linguistic impediments from lack of exposure to a natural language in early childhood, as well as the inherent difficulty of learning English only through the written modality. Yet some deaf children do acquire English via print. The current paper describes a theoretical model of how children could, in principle, acquire a language via reading and writing. The model describes stages of learning which represent successive, conceptual insights necessary for second/foreign language learning via print. Our model highlights the logical difficulties present when one cannot practice a language outside of reading/writing, such as the necessity of translating to a first language, the need for explicit instruction, and difficulty that many deaf children experience in understanding figurative language. Our model explains why learning to read is often a protracted process for deaf children and why many fail to make progress after some initial success. Because language acquisition is thought to require social interaction, with meaning cued by extralinguistic context, the ability of some deaf individuals to acquire language through print represents an overlooked human achievement worthy of greater attention by cognitive scientists.