Linguistics of ASL: PT-ASL Group Project

PROTACTILE ASL(PTASL)

presentatioN

TaCTILE ASL vS PROTACTILE ASL

01

What is the difference?

COMPARISON

T-ASL

PT ASL

Tactile

Protactile

• Used by Deafblind and friends, family, access/support professionals, etc.

• Accessable communication for Deafblind (with some caveats)
• Not group friendly; requires an interpreter (or possibly several if there's other DB) to communicate with a group
• Based directly on ASL. ASL is fully visual language . It is modified ASL (not a unique language-- more of a dialect of ASL)

• Evolved out of the larger Deaf community, modified for Deafblind
• Older, widely known-- anyone who knows ASL (a 200+ year old language) can sign it

• Used by Deafblind and friends, family, access/support professionals, etc.
• Fully accessable communication for Deafblind
• Easy for groups of Deafblind to use to communicate with eachother directly

• It is a unique language; it has some mutual intelligibility with ASL but it is distinct from ASL

• Evolved out of the Deafblind community itself
• New, not widely known-- newer, developed starting in 2007

COMPARISON

T-ASL

PT ASL

Tactile

Protactile

COMPARISON

T-ASL

PT ASL

Tactile

Protactile

History And CulturE

02

The emergence of Protactile ASL

HISTORY

The History of PT ASL

• It's a young language-- the concept for which was established in 2007

• Derived from the need to utilize all of the spatial elements of American Sign Language in an richly accessable manner through body contact and touch

• DeafBlind community traditionally used variations of American Sign Language, such as Tactile ASL

• Deafblind were missing out on information that is typically included in visual ASL, such as eye contact, nodding, and presence of the other person.

HISTORY

The History of PT ASL

• Developed in 2007 in the Seattle DeafBlind community
• Developed primarily by Aj Granda, Jackie Engler, and Jelica Nuccio
• Intentionally describe their language as “developed” rather than “invented”
• This emphasizes Protactile's natural evolution from ASL in order to meet practical needs of DeafBlind

• Protactile developed out of the desire to communicate in small groups
• Tactile ASL is always 1:1 often requiring an interpreter (or multiple)

• PT-ASL progenitors were frustrated sighted interpreters as 1:1 intermediaries
• Desired direct contact with other DeafBlind
• PT-ASL's progenitors described teaching a group class to other DeafBlind and introducing themselves to each student individually. This experience was new to many students who weren't used to direct interaction with teachers.

• Granda and Engler see themselves and their fellow protactile users as forging a new DeafBlind Way, analogous to the Deaf Way.

Why is protacile important

03

What does it have to offer?

Importance

Why PT ASL?

• Established by and for the DeafBlind community
• The language is designed by and for DeafBlind rather than with DeafBlind as an afterthought
• Allows more direct access: can be used in groups with multiple DeafBlind individuals without always needing a sighted interpreter
• Better access and more autonomy for DeafBlind
• ASL uses space, facial expressions, grammar structure of the mouth in the form of morphemes, and several other facets that make it the most accessible language for the sighted Deaf community.
• Protactile is felt, not seen and focuses on touch. Facial expressions, feelings and visuals that would be part of the visual landscape of ASL are all communicated through touch.

LINGUISTIC FEATURES

04

Explaination and examples of the linguistic features of PT-ASL

LInguistics

A few examples of linguistical components of PT-ASL

CONTACT SPACE

Backchanneling

Contact space on the body is utelized in novel ways for richer understanding

Lets the sender know the receiver is paying attention and understands

EMOTIONS & REACTIONS

Classifiers

A morphological system used to descriptively express categories of things and descriptions/states of that thing

Emotions and reactions are key in all signed languages but PT-ASL has a rich and novel approach to convey them

7 Principles of Protactile

03

01

ProtactilePerspective

04

02

ContactSpace

Reciprocity

SASS

• Any time space is used, it should be contact space, not air space.

• SASS describes sizes and shapes
• In Protactile each description should be organized using contact space in relation to the largest one

• Always communicate though touch (no matter how much you are able to see or hear)

• Take a protactile perspective; work together to co-create signs that are easy to feel and also describing things in ways that reflect protactile experience.

7 Principles of Protactile

tactileImagery

06

Exceptions

05

07

InformationSource

• Share the source of the information when you share information.

• If the first principle is in conflict with cultural norms or physically unsafe to apply, use alternative conventions.

• Protactile is to share experiences for all users. (It shouldn't be thought of as just for telling information to DeafBlind.)

GROUP ACTIVITY

05

Practicing what you learned

GROUP ACTIVITY

• Let's practice what you learned!
• Sit down with a partner and watch this video [by click the large oval play button on the left].
• Watch AJ Granada and Jelica Nucio, two of the progenitors of PT-ASL we mentioned earlier using ProTactile together and note the following linguistic features:
• Turn taking (Ex: 0:08 and 1:41)
• Two-handed signs used so that multiple DeafBlind recievers can understand the fingerspelling (Ex: 1:51)
• Incoperating recievers hands into the sign in listening & CL (Ex: 2:20)

Play

GROUP ACTIVITY

• Now that you've finshed watching the video any sighted communication partners should close their eyes.
• Try to have a conversation using what you learned!

• After you've finished, review with each other what was discussed.
• How much did you each understand?
• What worked well?
• What could've worked better?
• How could you both have made yourselves clearer?

• Additional challenge: Try incorporating classifiers using Protactile principles!

• [The video is on the left in the same position if you need to review it again.]

Play

THANK YOU!

We hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to the unique and wonderful language of PT-ASL!

SourceBook

To SEE OUR LIST OFSOURCES PLEASE CLICK TO OPEN

• For sources cited and futher information, videos, and reading on the topic please click the source book to the right