A STUDY OF THE TACTUAL RECEPTION OF SIGN LANGUAGE

One of the natural methods of tactual communication in common use amon g individuals who are both deaf and blind is the tactual reception of sign language. In this method, the receiver (who is deaf-blind) places a hand (or hands) on the dominant (or both) hand(s) of the signer in order to receive, through the tactual sense, the various formational p roperties associated with signs. In the study reported here, 10 experi enced deaf-blind users of either American Sign Language (ASL) or Pidgi n Sign English (PSE) participated in experiments to determine their ab ility to receive signed materials including isolated signs and sentenc es. A set of 122 isolated signs was received with an average accuracy of 87% correct. The most frequent type of error made in identifying is olated signs was related to misperception of individual phonological c omponents of signs. For presentation of signed sentences (translations of the English CID sentences into ASL or PSE), the performance of ind ividual subjects ranged from 60-85% correct reception of key signs. Pe rformance on sentences was relatively independent of rate of presentat ion in signs/sec, which covered a range of roughly 1 to 3 signs/sec. S entence errors were accounted for primarily by deletions and phonologi cal and semantic/syntactic substitutions. Experimental results are dis cussed in terms of differences in performance for isolated signs and s entences, differences in error patterns for the ASL and PSE groups, an d communication rates relative to visual reception of sign language an d other natural methods of tactual communication.