Tactile Communication with the Deaf-Blind

Tactile Communicationwith the Deaf-Blind From Guidelines Chapters 8 and 9

Tactile Communication For people who are “totally” deaf and blind: • Meeting for the first time: give yourself plenty of time to get used to each other • Use a gentle touch on the hand or back of upper arm • Identify yourself every time: Don’t play the “Who am I?” game • Do not feel stuck because there is a hand on yours

“Do’s and Don’ts” • Accept more than half the responsibility for good communication: • You have more information about the immediate environment through sight and hearing and • You have less drain of your energy • Don’t feel stuck because you are being super responsible (unless you are the SSP) • Don’t hesitate to engage in short “Hello” type conversations.

Adjusting to the Modality • Sign with smaller, slightly slower motions • Sign with distinct motions; Be crisp with your signing • For your own comfort and that of DB person, sign slightly lower than usual • Don’t hold the DB person’s fingers • Feeling the DB’s hands on top of yours may make you feel restricted and may tempt you to sign very small

Adjusting to the Modality 2 • Don’t duck your head or shoulders for signs on the head to meet your hands • FATHER, SICK, TASTE etc. • Don’t switch back and forth with your signing hands, use your dominant hand • Fingerspell slower but keep a consistent rhythm • Make sure the DB person knows whether or not other people might hear or see your conversation

Adjusting to the Modality 3 • Practice signing and reading signs tactually with other peers in class. • Communicating tactually for a long period of time is both physically and mentally fatiguing for the DB person. • If the DB person’s hands are especially heavy, ask them to lighten up • Pacing is important

Facial Expression • The tension, speed and other characteristics of your hands and their movement often reflect your overall mood • Use squeezes, pats and strokes • Beyond the natural changes in tension and speed that come with changes in mood, make an effort to be clear about how you are feeling: • Respond with “I’m thinking” (rubbing your chin) • If you are laughing, sign “HAHA” or THAT’S FUNNY!”

Setting the Scene • Let the DB person know where you are, who is present in the situation and what they are doing. • Let the DB person know about changes in the environment • Tell the DB person about other people’s responses • Tell the DB person what is happening during any pauses

Setting the Scene 2 • Think about a sense of place: • Share information about where you are if it is interesting • Use touch if explanation is not enough • Notice and report details which give character of the environment • Keep your friend up to date • Pass on the news

Overall Clarity • Indicate your purpose and the function of your communication: • i.e., QUESTION, INFORM-YOU, WARN-YOU • Give the DB person feedback: • YES, WHAT?, WOW, REALLY, INCREDIBLE. (Use signed responses to replace your head nods, grins and shrugged shoulders) • Be sure you understand her, ask for repetition or clarification

Overall Clarity 2 • Be sure you are clear, and that the DB person is receiving the correct message • Do not ramble • Before you talk, think about where you want to “begin” • Be succinct and to the point: • Start with the topic then make your point, elaboration follows. Allow the DB to check in, verifying and making connections.

Overall Clarity 3 • Watch out for misunderstandings, clarify if necessary • Notice for example, which of your signs tends to be misunderstood or not clearly understood • Offer feedback to the DB person, Use back channeling

Overall Clarity 4 • If what you said is not clear, try to think why it might not have been clear: • Common Reasons something is not understood: • The topic is not yet established ( what are we talking about?) • The background, context or connection is not clear (why are we talking about this, what’s the implication?) • An unfamiliar Sign or term has been used, • Listener has conflicting information or idea that prevents “accepting/believing” that is what you actually said, • Listener misunderstands the implications or connotations and these do not make sense, and • The topic, comment or process is emotional and strong feelings interfere with focus.

The Role of Context • Context consists of various aspects of the situation • Where you are and what you are there for, • Who is there and what they are doing, and • What type of furniture, equipment and material is present. • Think about the context of the people, this group. Sometimes a little history is necessary to have the comment make sense.

The Role of Context 2 • Context includes the past: • People’s relationships with each other, • Conversations that have gone before, • Decisions that have been made, rules that have been passed, • Customs and traditions, and • Problems needing to be solved.

The Role of Context 3 • Context includes possible implications • Predicted responses, and • Predicted consequences • Think about reasons as context • Ex: having pairs to partner as SSP: my reason is: safety factors and liability issues, to a DB person, as another form of oppression by the Deaf to the Deaf-Blind as it is difficult to schedule SSP services. • It helps us predict the potential for negotiation, and the relative flexibility of the decision.

The Role of Context 4 • Specifically think about: • Previous decisions or existent policies, • Customs and traditions, • History, what others have done, and • People’s relationships with each other • Think about what is happening non-verbally as having meaning. • i.e., moving chairs around

The Role of Context 5 • Think about the stationary environment as meaningful context. • Ex: steps, include what kind, how many, what the steps are attached to… • Observe “contextual clues” consciously and pass them on. • Ex: meeting someone carrying balloons, share this information. • Convey the social context: • who is there, how are they dressed, what is the sense of the group’s age, generation, race, class, and/or politics. Be specific, don’t say, “ She is really old.” Say, “she looks about 70 years old “

The Role of Context 6 • Context is indirect. • What are the others doing? If they are ready to leave, inform the DB person too etc. • Think carefully about how much background is appropriate. It also depends on the DB person. • Non-verbal responses are a part of the social context. Inform about others’ expressions. i.e., a smile, a frown etc. • If you are at a loss for something to say, let him know what you see.

Tactile Language • Number One rule: We must look at Deaf-Blind people at who they are rather than who they are not. • Number Two rule: Deaf-blind people come from a variety of educational, life experiences, and vision and hearing loss therefore their communication preferences vary. We must be open and accommodating of their communication preferences.

Tactile Language • Communication Modes: we should be flexible which means each of us will: • Accept the need for change and growth (learning), • Inform ourselves, • Be patient with ourselves and with each other, and • Make some progress towards more efficient and effective ways of communicating with the other.

Making the Visual Tactile • Numbers are sometimes difficult to read tactually so sometimes write the numbers on their palms • Use the person’s palm to show relative spatial relationships • Point the directions as well • Give some concrete indication of the distance and landmarks • i.e., ½ block on right etc. • Use palm and arm for several points or landmarks.

Special Tactile Signs and Signals • Gentle pat to knee if sitting down, to shoulder if you’re standing up.. • Short cuts to yes and no answers: two or more taps for YES, one tap for NO or DB person will put hand out to confirm, usually NO requires more clarification than YES. • Draw a large “X” for emergencies • Draw a large “T” to leave the situation for a short time.

Special Tactile Signs and Signals 2 • When interrupting (politely) rule of thumb is more urgent your interruption, the closer to the DB person’s hand you touch. • Use judgment and discretion in interrupting a Deaf-Blind person • Communication always require full attention, physical and mental • If person is busy, what do you do?

Very Slow Communication • Think carefully before you start and organize what you are going to say in a clear, logical order • Make your message short and to the point • Be careful what shortcuts you take • Think of what background information is necessary to understand the present point • Think of other ways the Deaf-Blind person can also get the same information

Very Slow Communication 2 • Use “check-ins” • Don’t let yourself become a target for anger. • Try to pick a time to communicate when you are not rushed, tired or otherwise stressed out • Recruit a partner with whom you can do things. • Watch to see what your level of tolerance is.

Very Slow Communication 3 • Try to balance the Deaf-Blind person’s need for immediate communication with her need to learn a better (more efficient) form of communication in the long term • If the DB person is open to the idea, help him find and use resources for learning sign • It is not important that your signing be “the right way” • Encourage the DB person to meet new people and use this new means of communicating.

Limited Language • Cognitively impaired Deaf Blind • Limited exposure to language • Limited experiences • Need for exposure and education

Modifying Tactile Language • ASL Parameters: • Handshape • Orientation • Location and • Movement • If in doubt with a sign, repeat or fingerspell it afterwards • Indexing: be sure DB person can feel the numbers you signed • Signs that are hard to perceive are: • LATE, WALKING, BOWLING etc. Revise by using classifiers or changing orientation

Modifying Tactile Language 2 • Signs made on the face is difficult to distinguish tactually i.e., mother, father • For minimal pairs, give more context i.e., • Key, lock • Ugly, dry, summer • Cute, funny • Apple, onion • Context built in signs • i.e., “sour, sour-candy, boring” • Choose sign that is easily discernable • Signs near the waist is difficult to read tactually • i.e., pants, Russia etc.

Modifying Tactile Language 3 • Palm orientation for classifiers: • i.e., door, table, pictures etc. • Use of classifiers to match environment • i.e., chair facing you or facing away • Be clear with your SASSes • (Size and Shape Specifiers) a big vs. small box • Be consistent with locatives • Speaker is to your right, food table to your left etc

Modifying Tactile Language 4 • Use movement to match the mood, emotion, feeling of your signing • Try to absorb the rhythm of experienced signers signing tactually • Use question marks • Eye gaze is essential in ASL, include that • Add names to indexing pronouns • Indicating distances does not work tactually, sign: ABOUT 5 MILES

Modifying Tactile Language 5 • Modifying ASL grammar for tactual information. i.e., • 1. You sure like ice cream! ICE-CREAM YOU LIKE, WOW! IMPRESSED ME. 2. Don’t you like ice cream? ?? ICE-CREAM DON’T LIKE YOU?? SURPRISED/PUZZLED ME. SMILE, NEVER SAW! 3. Do you like ice cream? ?? ICE-CREAM LIKE YOU??

Modifying Tactile Language 6 • Use signs: Mary said, etc instead of role shifting • Can show person’s personality or affect through signing • Opposition in space transfers well tactually • i.e, up, down, left, right, forward & backward • Movements with specific meanings are clear tactually • i.e, repetition (temporal aspect) distributional, plurality

Modifying Tactile Language 7 • Make sure the discourse is clear • For comments made out of context, it is generally a good idea to establish the reasons that you are saying what you are saying. • i.e., An interesting fact, or a funny story • A question, warning or caution.

Tactile Communication with the Deaf-Blind