Nia(Purpose)

I had a question about your commissions- is it $5 per word on the finger spellings or $5 overall? I presumed the former but wasn’t sure

I'll say up to 20 characters

Stress

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Stress in American Sign Language. Open B handshape presses down on base hand in S handshape. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.

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It's been awhile since I did an actual painting. I chose this sign, poem, specifically the express version, as a sort of love letter to the language and community. I've been studying American Sign Language for a few years now. Verbal communication has often been a struggle for me. With ASL, I have been able to meet and communicate with many wonderful people in a way that feels freeing. I am still learning. There are things I can't sign because I haven't learned the vocabulary yet. And there are things I can't say because they can only be expressed in sign.

[Image ID: a painting of a yellow and orange figure. Their arm starts clenched at their heart and opens as it extends forward. End ID]

Chuck Baird's Crocodile Dundee, 1992

Sources: Deaf-art.org | Profiles, Chuck Baird, DeafArt.org | Artworks, Descriptions

[Image ID by Dawn Sign Press:

Mirroring a crocodile's huge, fearsome jaws, a pair of arms lies directly beneath them, parodying their drawbridge motion. (DSP)

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Chuck Baird is a De'VIA (Deaf View / Image Art) artist, and he's got a lot of cool stuff that incorporates American Sign Language! I think this one, Tyger Tyger, and the whale one are my favorites. Check him out!

Wheelchair

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined I also found this video about basic wheelchair skills while researching hand placement

[Image ID:

Wheelchair in American Sign Language. Both hands in S handshape move forward and open in a loose 5 handshape. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign. There are black wheelchair wheels with silver rims to help signify location of the sign.

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Sarcastic

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID: Sarcastic in American Sign Language. Both hands in a rock on hand shape. Dominant index finger taps the nose then arms cross at the wrist with dominant hand on top. End ID]

Autism

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Autism in American Sign Language. Hand upright in 5 handshape palm facing signer closes into flat O handshape as it arches toward signer's chest and into base hand in C handshape. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.

End ID]

Protest

Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined

[Image ID:

Protest in American Sign Language. S handshape palm facing signer and elbow resting on base hand in open B handshape palm down. Fist twists out and arms move out slightly. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent green and blue in different stages of the sign.

End ID]

[Image ID:

Image 1: Protest in ASL. Arms are different darker skin tones.

Image 2: Protest in ASL. First set of arms are in Gay pride colors. Second set are Trans pride colors.

Image 3: Protest in ASL. Arms are different skin tones in a black wrist brace.

End ID]

[Image ID: 5 tweets from "glasses".

1. Just found out there's no school for the deaf in America. Bullshit.

2. Maybe I'll just start a school myself ffs. There's one in England maybe they can show me.

3. Omw to England :) wish me luck

4. Literally fuck England

5. Omw to France:) wish me luck

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What kind of technology do you think would help d/Deaf / HoH people in the future? Should there be more research into improving hearing aids, or making real-time captioning glasses, or maybe AI that can translate sign language instead of a human interpreter? What would be super useful if it existed?

Hello,

hearing loss is very varied, as are the types of communication people use. As such, I wouldn't focus on one single technology, since it wouldn't fit all deaf people.

Hearing aids can't be much improved, imo - they work on making sounds louder for existing hearing. They can be fine tuned, but they are more akin to glasses. The biggest issue with hearing aids isn't technology, but their price - they often aren't covered by insurance and as such, remain inaccessible for lot of people. There is also a significant stigma about their usage, esp for people who lose hearing later in life and discomfort with using them. I think that should be the priority.

Cochlear implants are a hearing device which can still be improved and does keep improving every year. Ideal end goal would be hearing identical to natural hearing and smaller size of implant. Current implants do work well, but sounds from them are different compared to "ordinary" hearing (more robotized, less fine) and they are still fairly big. Of course, you can't make them too small, otherwise you wouldn't be able to operate them. And same as hearing aids, price remains a problem - not just price of surgery and implant itself, but of batteries and upkeep.

I would honestly love real time caption glasses! They do exist in some way nowadays, but not in any practical form. One of the biggest issues is that automatic caption is still pretty... hit or miss. Especially in louder environments, extra especially if your language isn't English. I do think its a neat technology that could be useful, but we are far from its ideal existence. (not to mention, problems with privacy, connection to internet, how to power them, price, etc etc.)

There already has been some attempts into artificial interpreter, but nothing really workable. Big issue is that you need both technology that produces very fine tuned movement of all top parts of body (including face expressions) and is able to capture movement and recognize movement. Another issue is that you would need to have a workable library of all signs in a specific sign language. ASL is probably the closest to it, but it would need to be likely captured for that technology specifically and that's insane amounts of work. Unlike with written English, you can't just scrape internet for signs - they are in various video forms, differ slightly, lot of signs aren't on internet at all... To have AI interpreter, you first need to have a great, indexed sign language dictionary and that doesn't really exist at the moment.

(there are various online dictionaries but their quality... is in my opinion not up to par for this)

The biggest problem often isn't technical limit of technology itself, but the amount of time and money it would need for these technologies to exist. That's why cochlear implants get most "updates", bcs its funded by big medical companies and it brings lot of money.

In ideal world, I would love to have all of these technologies. If you focus on just one, you risk leaving part of community in the lurch. Not all deaf/hoh people use sign language. Not all deaf/hoh people want or can use hearing aids or cochlear implants. Not all deaf/hoh people are good readers (either due language issues or additional disabilities).

Hope this helped,

Mod T