From Seeing to Feeling: How Do Deafblind People Adapt Visual Sign Languages?

Willoughby, Louisa; Manns, Howard; Iwasaki, Shimako; Bartlett, Meredith

doi:10.1007/978-981-15-6430-7_15

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Belonging: Communication, Norms, and Values Linguistic research on tactile signing often finds that deaf blind signers are involved in and/or have been part of a signing deaf community: a community in which sign language and deaf culture are valued (Checchetto et al 2018;Edwards 2014aEdwards , 2014bKyle and Barnett 2012;Mesch 2001;Schwartz 2009;Willoughby et al 2020). It is important to note, however, that the discussion on tactile communication in this literature review is mostly based on the United States, Europe, and Australia.…”

Section: Protactilementioning

confidence: 99%

Deafblind Tactile Signers: The Dynamics of Communication and Space

Van Der Mark

2023

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The focus of this article is on deaf blind people who are or have been involved with deaf signing communities and, when vision changes, transition to tactile reception of sign language. This brings about a disconnection with the signing community, exploration of (other) possibilities, and seeking or creating deaf blind spaces. In the United States, the protactile movement led to a more tactile-centric form of communication and to more autonomy for deaf blind people. In international settings, deaf blind people from diverse language backgrounds communicate in a mix of visual and tactile representations or conventions of concepts. At the academic level, deaf blind people have been studied by a variety of disciplines. Deaf blind studies benefits from multidisciplinary and insider perspectives to gain more insights into theory and research methods.

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Section: Protactilementioning

confidence: 99%

Deafblind Tactile Signers: The Dynamics of Communication and Space

Van Der Mark

2023

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“…In Australia, Iwasaki (2020) has studied tactile Australian sign language and considered methodological issues in the collection, transcription, and analysis of CA data. Together with a team of researchers, she has studied the transition from visual to tactile modality by deafblind signer's Willoughby, Manns, Iwasaki & Bartlett 2020), humorous utterances in tactile sign language , and how misunderstandings arise and are resolved (Willoughby et al 2014;2018). However, research on intersubjectivity and the process of constructing mutual understanding in tactile communication is still scarce, and when it comes to interpreter mediated communication, earlier publications have not been found.…”

Section: Earlier Research On Deafblind Interpretingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intersubjective Understanding in Interpreted Table Conversations for Deafblind Persons

Raanes

Berge

2021

Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research

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The question to be raised in this study is how shared understanding can be established in interpretermediated group dialogues for deafblind persons. The study is based on an analysis of video recordings from a restaurant banquet where a group of deafblind persons and their interpreters were present. Despite their inability to see and hear one another clearly, the dialogue among the deafblind participants flows. Analysis of video-recordings from the banquet found that intersubjectivity was established when interpreters and deafblind participants worked together to establish mutual attention, define the situation and the message structures. Further, the analyzes found that haptic signals, embodied gestures, and tactile senses were used to examine the context of the dinner table and handle the banquet activity. As a result, multiple states of intersubjectivities are found: It is not only the deafblind participants who establish states of intersubjectivity in their dialogue with each other, the interpreters are also part of their social world.The aim of this study is to establish more awareness of multimodal strategies that can support meaningmaking in communication with deafblind participants. This article enlights insight into the interpreters' professional practice and how they alternate between interpreting spoken utterances, describing the context, and facilitating different kinds of haptic signals. This insight is also relevant to other professional groups working to assist deafblind persons, for instance, teachers, social workers, health workers, and personal assistants. The findings will also contribute to the field of linguistics research. By exploring a specific setting, where multimodal resources are used by participants who have a combined sensory loss, we can understand language use in this specific setting as well as theoretical concepts and general structures in human communication.

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“…This is not a surprising finding. Several studies of deafblind conversations document the use of tactile response signals between the interlocutors (Willoughby et al, 2018(Willoughby et al, , 2020. The tactile response signals are part of both the interpreter's and the deafblind person's contributions, whether supporting the main frontstage conversation or being a part of the backstage interaction between each deafblind person and their interpreter.…”

Section: Multimodality In Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Raanes

2020

Front. Psychol.

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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.

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From Seeing to Feeling: How Do Deafblind People Adapt Visual Sign Languages?

Cited by 9 publications

References 23 publications

Deafblind Tactile Signers: The Dynamics of Communication and Space

Deafblind Tactile Signers: The Dynamics of Communication and Space

Intersubjective Understanding in Interpreted Table Conversations for Deafblind Persons

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

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