Glossary

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AI-Generated Speech(also: Synthetic Speech, AI Speech)

Speech audio produced by artificial intelligence systems — typically neural text-to-speech or voice cloning models — rather than recorded from a human speaker. Deaf and hard-of-hearing content creators increasingly use AI-generated speech to add spoken-language tracks to signed…

ASL Grammar(also: American Sign Language Grammar)

The linguistic rules governing the structure and use of American Sign Language, which differs fundamentally from English grammar. ASL has its own syntax, morphology, and phonology, with word order, spatial grammar, and non-manual markers playing central roles. NMS serve as…

Acoustic Event Detection(also: Sound Event Detection, Audio Event Detection, Sound Event Classification)

The automated process of identifying and classifying specific sounds within an audio stream, such as recognizing a phone ringing, door knocking, fire alarm, or speech from continuous environmental audio. Acoustic event detection systems use machine learning trained on labeled…

Aural Diversity(also: Hearing diversity)

A framework that recognizes the wide variation in how humans perceive and engage with sound, rather than treating typical hearing as the norm against which all other experiences are measured. Aural diversity spans d/Deaf, Hard of Hearing, hyperacusis, tinnitus, misophonia,…

Bangla Sign Language(also: BdSL, Bangladeshi Sign Language)

The sign language used by the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing community in Bangladesh. BdSL has distinct grammatical structures, vocabulary, and regional variation that differ from American Sign Language (ASL) and from the sign languages used in neighbouring countries. As a…

British Sign Language(also: BSL)

The primary sign language used by deaf communities in the United Kingdom, recognized as an official language under the British Sign Language Act 2022. BSL is distinct from American Sign Language (ASL) and other sign languages, with its own grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. A key…

CART(also: Communication Access Realtime Translation, Computer-Aided Real-Time Translation)

A real-time captioning service in which a trained stenographer uses a specialized keyboard to transcribe spoken language into text as it is spoken, typically achieving accuracy rates above 98%. CART is considered the gold standard for real-time captioning accuracy but is…

CODA(also: Child of Deaf Adults, Children of Deaf Adults)

An acronym for Child of Deaf Adults, referring to a hearing person who was raised by one or more Deaf parents. CODAs typically grow up bilingual and bicultural, fluent in both a sign language and a spoken language, and often serve as cultural bridges between Deaf and hearing…

Chinese Sign Language(also: CSL, Zhongguo Shouyu)

Chinese Sign Language (CSL) is the primary sign language used by the deaf community in mainland China. Like all sign languages, CSL has its own grammar, syntax, and vocabulary that are distinct from spoken and written Mandarin Chinese. CSL is used by an estimated 20 million deaf…

Chroma Key(also: Green Screen, Blue Screen, Chroma Keying)

A video-post-production technique in which a solid, uniformly coloured background (often green or blue) is replaced with another image, video, or transparency using colour-matching software. In accessibility work, chroma key is most often encountered in the production of…

Closed Interpreting(also: Closed Sign Language Interpreting)

A proposed accessibility feature for video content where a sign language interpreter video can be toggled on or off and displayed alongside the main video, analogous to closed captions for text. Unlike embedded "open" interpreters that are permanently part of the video, closed…

Code-switching(also: Language switching, Code-mixing)

Code-switching is the practice of alternating between two or more languages, dialects, or communication styles within a single conversation or even a single sentence. It is common in multilingual households, immigrant communities, and among speakers of non-standard dialects.…

Continuous Sign Language Recognition(also: CSLR)

A computer vision task that involves recognizing sign language from continuous, naturally produced signing — as opposed to isolated sign recognition, which identifies individual signs in segmented clips. Continuous sign language recognition deals with the complexities of natural…

Cross-language Research(also: Cross-linguistic Research, Multilingual Research)

Research conducted across different languages, requiring translation and interpretation to bridge communication between researchers and participants who do not share a common language. In accessibility research with sign language users, cross-language challenges are particularly…

Cross-modal Plasticity(also: Cross-modal Reorganisation, Cross-modal Cortical Recruitment, Sensory Substitution)

A neurological phenomenon in which brain regions typically dedicated to processing one sensory modality are repurposed to process information from another sense, often as a result of sensory deprivation. In deaf individuals, auditory cortical areas can reorganise to support…

Cultural Barrier(also: Cultural Challenge)

Social and cultural norms that impede learning or participation in certain activities. In sign language education, cultural barriers significantly affect hearing learners' ability to produce non-manual signs, as exaggerated facial expressions required in ASL may feel…

Cypriot Sign Language(also: CSL)

The sign language used by the Deaf community in Cyprus, distinct from other sign languages such as American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL), or Greek Sign Language. Like all natural sign languages, Cypriot Sign Language has its own grammar, vocabulary, and…

Deaf Culture(also: Deaf Community Culture)

The shared cultural identity, values, social norms, language, art, literature, and history of Deaf people who communicate primarily through sign language. Deaf culture (with a capital "D") views deafness not as a disability or medical condition to be fixed, but as a cultural and…

Deaf Education(also: Deaf Pedagogy, Education of the Deaf)

Deaf education encompasses the teaching methods, curricula, and educational systems designed to meet the learning needs of deaf and hard of hearing students. It spans a range of approaches from oral methods emphasizing speech and lipreading, to bilingual-bicultural programs that…

Deaf Literacy

The reading and writing abilities of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, particularly in the dominant spoken/written language of their country. Research consistently shows that a majority of deaf high school graduates in the United States have English reading levels at or…

Deaf Music(also: Deaf musicality, Music in Deaf culture)

Music as experienced, created, and culturally interpreted by d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals and communities. Deaf music encompasses a multimodal, spatio-temporal engagement with rhythm, vibration, visual performance, song signing, and emotional resonance — often…

Deaf and Hard of Hearing(also: DHH, D/HH)

An inclusive term encompassing people with varying degrees of hearing loss, from mild to profound. "Deaf" with a capital D often refers to individuals who identify as members of the Deaf community and culture, using sign language as their primary language. "deaf" with a…

Deaf-Accented Speech(also: Deaf Accent, Deaf-Accented English)

Speech produced by Deaf or Hard of Hearing people whose articulation, prosody, and voicing patterns differ from typical hearing speakers because the speaker has limited or no auditory feedback for their own voice. Deaf-accented speech is intelligible to familiar listeners but is…

Differential Signing Rate(also: Dynamic Signing Speed, Signing Rate Variation)

The degree to which the speed of individual signs varies throughout a sign language passage, reflecting natural speed-ups and slow-downs driven by linguistic context. In human signing, certain words may be performed more quickly (such as repeated words) while others are slowed…

Dinner Table Syndrome

The social and emotional isolation experienced by deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in hearing family settings where spoken language is the primary mode of communication. Named for the common experience of sitting at a family dinner table surrounded by conversation one cannot…

Early Intervention(also: EI, Early Childhood Intervention)

Services and support provided to infants and young children (typically birth to age 3 or 5) with developmental delays or disabilities, and their families. For DHH children, early intervention is critical and includes sign language instruction, speech-language therapy,…

English Literacy(also: Reading Literacy, English Reading Literacy)

The ability to read, write, and comprehend written English. In the context of deaf and hard-of-hearing accessibility, English literacy is a significant consideration because many DHH individuals — particularly those who are native ASL users — may have lower levels of English…

Expressive Captions(also: Affective Captions, Emotion Captions, Typographic Captions)

Captions that go beyond literal word-for-word transcription to convey the prosodic, emotional, or speaker-identity information that traditional captions strip out. Expressive captions may modulate font weight, size, colour, position, or animation to signal loudness, pitch,…

Eye Gaze(also: Gaze, Gaze Direction, Visual Gaze)

The direction and focus of a person's eyes during visual attention, used both as a communication signal and as a measurable indicator of cognitive processing. In sign language communication, eye gaze serves critical linguistic functions including marking grammatical…

Facial Avatar(also: Singing head, Talking head avatar)

A digital, animated representation of a face — typically rendered as a 3D or stylized 2D character from the neck up — driven by audio, video, or data signals to produce expressive facial behavior such as lip-sync, emotional expression, gaze, and head motion. In accessibility…

Family-Centered Learning(also: Family-Centered Education)

An educational approach that actively involves family members in the learning process, recognizing that home environments and family participation significantly impact learning outcomes, often more than school-based interventions alone. In the context of DHH children,…

Game Captioning(also: Video Game Captions, Gaming Subtitles, In-Game Captions)

The practice of displaying text representations of dialogue, sound effects, and other audio content within video games for deaf and hard-of-hearing players. Game captioning differs from film or television captioning because games are interactive rather than passive — players…

German Sign Language(also: DGS, Deutsche Gebärdensprache)

The sign language used by the deaf community in Germany, recognised as an independent natural language with its own grammar, syntax, and vocabulary distinct from spoken German. Like other sign languages worldwide, German Sign Language is a visual-spatial language that uses…

Gloss(also: Sign Gloss, Gloss Notation)

A form of transliteration used in sign language research where written words from a spoken language (typically the dominant spoken language of the region, such as English) are used as labels to represent individual signs. Glosses are written in capital letters by convention…

Group Narrative(also: Collaborative Storytelling, Co-Signing Performance)

A collaborative storytelling activity deeply rooted in Deaf culture and communities where two or more signers jointly perform a story using sign language, often with exaggerated and creative expression. In a typical group narrative, one person stands in front handling non-manual…

Irish Sign Language(also: ISL, Teanga Chomharthaíochta na hÉireann)

The indigenous sign language of the Deaf community in Ireland, distinct from both English and Irish (Gaelic) spoken languages and from British Sign Language (BSL). Like all sign languages, ISL uses manual features (hand shapes, movements, and positions) and non-manual features…

Isolated Sign Language Recognition(also: isolated SLR, word-level sign recognition)

A sign language recognition task that focuses on identifying individual, pre-segmented signs rather than continuous signing sequences. In isolated SLR, each sign is captured as a separate video clip with clear start and end points, simplifying the recognition problem compared to…

Isolated Sign Recognition(also: ISR, ISLR)

A computer vision and machine learning task focused on identifying individual signs from video recordings where each video contains a single sign production, as opposed to continuous sign language recognition which processes connected signing in sentences or conversation.…

Korean Sign Language(also: KSL, Suhwa)

The primary sign language of the Deaf community in South Korea, with its own grammar, vocabulary, and regional variation, and legally recognized as an official language of Korea under the Korean Sign Language Act of 2016. KSL is historically related to Japanese Sign Language due…

Language Deprivation(also: Linguistic Deprivation)

The condition that occurs when children do not receive sufficient accessible language input during critical developmental periods, leading to atypical neural development, cognitive delays, and lifelong mental health challenges. DHH children in hearing families who do not use…

Language Erasure(also: Linguistic Erasure, Language Flattening)

The process by which a language's unique characteristics, variations, dialects, and cultural significance are diminished, homogenized, or eliminated — often through the dominance of a majority language or through technologies that oversimplify linguistic complexity. In the…

Lexical Signing(also: Lexical Sign, LS)

In American Sign Language and related signed languages, the production of meaning by syntactically combining individual lexical signs drawn from the language's vocabulary — analogous to combining words into sentences in a spoken or written language. Lexical signing is contrasted…

Lip-reading(also: Speechreading, Speech Reading, Visual Speech Perception)

The practice of understanding speech by visually interpreting the movements of the lips, face, and tongue, often used by deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals as a communication strategy. Lip-reading relies on watching the mouth region and facial expressions to decode spoken…

Machine Translation(also: MT, Automated Translation)

Machine translation is the use of computer software to automatically translate text or speech from one language to another. In accessibility contexts, machine translation is particularly relevant to sign language accessibility, where translating written or spoken text into sign…

Mainstream Classroom(also: Inclusive Classroom, Integrated Classroom)

An educational setting where students with disabilities learn alongside their non-disabled peers, typically with support services such as interpreters, captioning, or note-takers. For deaf and hard-of-hearing students, mainstream classrooms present unique accessibility…

Mainstream Education(also: Mainstreaming, Inclusive Education, Integrated Classroom)

The practice of educating students with disabilities in general education classrooms alongside non-disabled peers, rather than in separate special education settings. Mainstreaming emerged from disability rights legislation like the U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Education…

Manual Sign(also: MS, Hand Sign)

The hand shapes, movements, and locations that form the primary visible component of sign language vocabulary. Manual signs are what most hearing people think of as "sign language," but they represent only one channel of a multi-channel visual communication system. In ASL,…

Mediated Instruction(also: Mediated Learning, Interpreted Instruction)

An educational approach where content is delivered to students through an intermediary, such as a sign language interpreter, rather than directly from the instructor. Research shows that while mediated instruction can be as effective as direct instruction when classes are…

Mel Spectrogram(also: Mel-frequency Spectrogram, Log Mel Spectrogram)

A visual representation of sound that maps audio frequencies onto the mel scale, which approximates how humans perceive pitch — compressing higher frequencies and expanding lower ones to match the non-linear sensitivity of human hearing. Mel spectrograms convert audio signals…

Music Psychotherapy

A form of music therapy that uses musical activities — songwriting, improvisation, lyric analysis, receptive listening — to address emotional, psychological, and relational concerns rather than sensory or rehabilitative goals. Practitioners are typically licensed music…