Sign & Spell
Limited literacy can render higher education inaccessible, which is reflected in this sample of deaf and hearing popluations’ levels of education: there is a significant difference between deaf and hearing graduates at all levels of higher education.
I started my process work for this project thinking about existing educational language toys. The example that came to mind immediately was alphabet blocks. They have been documented as far back as the 17th century. There are even alphabet blocks that feature the manually coded alphabet. Something that struck me about toys like this, as spatially engaging as they are, is how static the forms are. I wanted my project to be more flexible and active.
My first ideas for a posable hand toy focused on the movement involved in some manually coded letters like the J in manually coded English or the eñe in lengua de señas Mexicana. Other attempts proved inflexible and difficult for small hands to assemble and disassemble.
A significant population of newborns in just the US are born Deaf or Hard of Hearing, and only 5% of those children are born to Deaf parents, meaning that 95% of Deaf children are born into families that speak a language inaccessible to them. Some families learn ASL so they can teach their children a signed language, but that is not always the case, meaning Deaf children are often delayed in learning a signed language, missing the critical language acquisition period. To further complicate matters, Deaf children are then tasked with learning written English as a second language. As Deaf children learn their signed language spatially, this can be a significant challenge. This is reflected in the average reading level of Deaf ASL users, which is about four grades behind hearing adults.
My project acknowledges the inevitability of delayed speech acquisition, as limited accessibility to ASL learning for hearing families is a problem in itself. Instead of trying to solve the entire wicked problem as a whole, my project aims to provide an educational toy to Deaf children that accommodates their language learning style. Deaf infants, just like hearing children, begin to babble at about five months of age, but rather than aurally creating these sounds, they babble with their hands. Already they are processing language as a visual, spatial thing. Many experts agree that the best method for introducing a spoken and written language is to begin by teaching the manual alphabet of the language in question. This teaches the child concepts like individual letters and spelling while also providing a written parallel to the manual alphabet being taught.
Another issue with the static nature of fingerspelling blocks is the limitations in use. American sign language is derived from French Sign Language. It and its other derivatives are widely used, and often there is overlap in signs and fingerspelling. An articulated, posable toy and flashcards would provide a flexible solution that would need only a few alterations to be applicable to many other sign languages within the French Sign Language family.
I finally arrived on my final product, which can be seen here. The fingers are fully articulated and have ample range of motion to accurately create the manually coded alphabet.
Here are the accompanying flash cards that give both sign language and written English prompts for how to pose the hand. I chose a simplified style for both the hand and flashcards to help the user associate the written and signed letterforms with simple geometric shapes they are also likely to be learning.