Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
88 results found in sign language.
- ASL (American Sign Language)
- Abbreviation for American Sign Language, the primary sign language used by Deaf communities in the United States and much of Canada. ASL is a complete, natural language with its own grammar, vocabular…
- ASL Grammar (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, sp…
- ASL Linguistic Markers (Non-Manual Markers, Non-Manual Signals, ASL Facial Grammar)
- Facial expressions, head movements, and body postures that serve grammatical and semantic functions in American Sign Language and other sign languages, distinct from emotional facial expressions. Comm…
- Automatic Sign Language Processing (ASLP, Sign Language Processing)
- An umbrella term encompassing three major areas of technology for sign language: automatic sign language generation (ASLG, creating sign language output from text or speech), automatic sign language r…
- Back-Translation (Reverse Translation)
- A quality assurance method used in survey and instrument translation where a translated version is independently translated back into the original language by a different translator. The back-translat…
- Black ASL (Black American Sign Language, BASL)
- A distinct dialect of American Sign Language that developed within the Black Deaf community, shaped by the history of racial segregation in Deaf education in the United States. Black ASL has its own l…
- British Sign Language (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)…
- Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI)
- A Deaf or Hard-of-hearing individual who has obtained professional certification from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) to provide interpreting, translation, and transliteration services…
- Chinese Natural Sign Language (CNSL)
- Chinese Natural Sign Language (CNSL) is the language used by roughly twenty million Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people in China. Unlike Chinese Sign Language (CSL) — an artificial, school-and-broadcast s…
- Citation Form (Dictionary Form, Isolated Form)
- The standard, isolated way a sign is produced when demonstrated independently, as typically shown in sign language dictionaries. In natural continuous signing, signs often appear differently from thei…
- Classifier (Classifier Predicate, Depicting Sign)
- A type of sign language construction in which handshapes represent categories of objects or entities and are combined with movement and location to convey spatial information about position, movement,…
- Coarticulation
- A linguistic phenomenon in sign language where the production of one sign influences the physical form of adjacent signs in continuous signing. For example, the ending hand position or handshape of on…
- Compound Sign (Compound Word)
- A sign formed by combining two or more existing signs into a single, unified sign with its own distinct meaning. In American Sign Language and other sign languages, compound signs undergo phonological…
- Continuous Sign Language (Connected Sign Language, Continuous Signing)
- Sign language produced in natural, flowing sentences and discourse, as opposed to isolated individual signs. Continuous sign language includes phenomena like co-articulation (where one sign influences…
- Continuous Sign Language Recognition (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 cli…
- Cypriot Sign Language (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 s…
- Depth Camera (Depth Sensor, RGB-D Camera, 3D Camera)
- A depth camera is a device that captures both standard visual imagery and per-pixel distance information, producing a 3D representation of the scene. Technologies include structured light (projecting …
- Differential Signing Rate (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 m…
- Endangered Sign Language (Minority Sign Language, Under-Documented Sign Language)
- A sign language at risk of falling out of use, typically because the Deaf community that uses it is small, geographically isolated, or under pressure to adopt a dominant sign language. Most of the wor…
- Facial Expression
- The use of facial muscles to convey emotions, reactions, or linguistic meaning. In sign languages such as ASL, facial expressions serve a grammatical function far beyond conveying emotion — they mark …