Promoting better deaf/hearing communication through an improved interaction design for fingerspelling practice

Abstract

Fingerspelling is a manual system used by many signers for producing letters of a written alphabet to spell words from a spoken language. It can function as a link between signed and spoken languages. Fingerspelling is a vital skill for ASL/English interpreters, parents and teachers of deaf children as well as providers of deaf social services. Unfortunately fingerspelling reception can be a particularly difficult skill for hearing adults to acquire. One of the contributing factors to this situation is a lack of adequate technology to facilitate self-study. This paper describes new efforts to create a practice tool that more realistically simulates the use of fingerspelling in the real world.