Mastodawn

Seems like a lot of sign languages can be "heard" by the deaf-blind listener keeping their hands on the signing person's hands, so they also get the bigger more meaningful gestures that go a lot faster than finger-spelling. Makes lots of sense.

And then it needs some adaptation as some signs wouldn't work so well with someone following your hands. Layers of accessibility.

Brian Nicar 6d ago

@sarajw

@adhdeanasl might have some more information for you. If he doesn't mind, of course...

@wendigo @adhdeanasl thank you!

I just went to find a German video about it, and it looks rather like it's a lot of the standard sign language, but the deafblind 'listener' is using their hands to follow those of the speaker.

ADHDeanASL 6d ago

@wendigo Tactile ASL is far more than fingerspelling into the hand. It’s fully ASL, with the DeafBlind person tracking hand-over-hand. There are modification to signs, of course, and the person signing to the DeafBlind person adds important environmental information such as who’s speaking, where people are in the room, etc. ProTactile (PT) is a new-ish form of conveying information via haptics - even more environmental info is shared - if the presenter is pacing, when the crowd is laughing, where questions are coming from, etc. ProTactile is a specific “brand” of haptic communication. @sarajw

@adhdeanasl makes a lot of sense. Why indeed wouldn't tactile signing also allow for the same bigger gestures that convey meaning much faster than spelling it all out.

Thank you for the extra detail!

@wendigo

Geoff 6d ago

@sarajw Both my daughters really benefitted from Baby Signing Time. It’s super baby-centered, of course, but really did the job at a super young age. I even still remember many of the songs!