COMPUTERIZED WRITTEN COMMUNICATION FOR THE DEAF

THE MEMBERS OF THE DEAF COMMUNITY IN THE UNITED STATES ARE ISOLATED FROM BOTH THE HEARING POPULATION AND EACH OTHER. A PRIMARY CAUSE OF THIS ISOLATION IS THE ABSENCE OF A COMMONLY ACCEPTED WRITTEN FORM OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL). A RECENTLY DEVISED SYMBOL SET, CALLED SIGN WRITING (R), HAS BEEN WELL RECEIVED, YET ITS DISSEMINATION HAS BEEN LIMITED BY THE NEED TO PRODUCE THE SYMBOLS BY HAND. THIS EFFORT WILL COMPUTERIZE "WORD PROCESSING" SOFTWARE FOR SIGN WRITING (R) AND THEN INVESTIGATE THE PSYCHOLINGUISTIC AND ERGONOMIC ISSUES INVOLVED IN THE DESIGN OF A KEYBOARD OR SIMILAR DEVICE TAILORED TO THE NEEDS OF SIGNERS. THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE IS TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF AN INPUT DEVICE WHOSE OPERATION USES MOTOR SEQUENCES THAT RUN CONGRUENT TO, RATHER THAN COUNTER TO, THE MOTOR ACTIVITIES INHERENT IN SIGN PRODUCTION. POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS INCLUDE SIGN TYPEWRITERS FOR CONSUMER USE; SIGN TYPESETTING SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS; SOFTWARE PACKAGES AND TOOLS FOR LINGUISTIC RESEARCH; SOFTWARE DATABASES FOR OTHER FORMS OF MOVEMENT RECOGNITION ALTERNATE DATA ENTRY SYSTEMS FOR THE PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED; PORTABLE ASL-TO-ENGLISH TRANSLATORS, SIGN TTYS, AND SIGN ANIMATION FOR EDUCATIONAL USE. NO SUCH SOFTWARE OR DEVICES NOW EXIST.