Glossary
Searchable terminology from accessibility, web standards, and related fields.
88 results found in sign language.
- Sign Language Interface (Sign-language interface, Signing interface)
- A computing interface that accepts input from, or presents output to, a user in a signed language such as American Sign Language (ASL) or British Sign Language (BSL), rather than assuming a spoken or …
- Sign Language Interpretation (Sign Language Interpreting, SLI)
- The process of conveying spoken or written language into a sign language (or vice versa) by a trained interpreter, enabling communication access for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals. In digital me…
- Sign Language Phonology
- The study of the smallest meaningful units that make up signs in signed languages, analogous to phonemes in spoken languages. In American Sign Language, signs are composed of phonological parameters i…
- Sign Language Writing System (Sign Language Script, Sign Language Notation, Sign Language Character System)
- A system of symbols or characters designed to represent sign language in written form. Unlike spoken languages, which have well-established writing systems, sign languages generally lack a standard wr…
- Sign Phoneme (cheremes, sign language phoneme)
- The smallest contrastive units in sign language that bear meaning and distinguish one sign from another, analogous to phonemes in spoken language. Sign phonemes include hand shapes, movements, locatio…
- Sign Vocabulary (Signing Vocabulary, Sign Lexicon)
- The set of signs that a person knows or that a sign language recognition system can identify. In the context of sign language technology, vocabulary size is a critical constraint that determines a sys…
- Sign Writing (SignWriting, Sutton SignWriting)
- A graphical notation system for writing sign languages, developed by Valerie Sutton in 1974. Sign Writing uses visual symbols to represent hand shapes, movements, facial expressions, and body position…
- SignWriting
- A writing system for sign languages that uses visual symbols to represent handshapes, movements, facial expressions, and body positions. Created by Valerie Sutton in 1974, SignWriting allows sign lang…
- Signed Chinese (Manually Coded Chinese, Wenfa Shouyu)
- A manually coded signing system that imposes the grammar and word order of written/spoken Mandarin Chinese onto signs, analogous to Signed Exact English in anglophone contexts. Signed Chinese is commo…
- Signed Exact English (SEE, SEE-II, Signing Exact English)
- A manually coded sign system that represents spoken English visually by following English grammar, word order, and morphology rather than using the natural grammar of American Sign Language (ASL). Unl…
- Signer Box (Signing Space, Sign Space)
- The three-dimensional space in front of a sign language user within which signs are produced, typically extending from the waist to just above the head and about an arm's width to either side. The sig…
- Signing Avatar (Sign Language Avatar, Virtual Signer)
- A computer-generated animated character that produces sign language output, translating text or spoken content into visual sign language for deaf and hard of hearing users. Signing avatars are used in…
- Signing Avatar (Sign Language Avatar, Virtual Signer)
- A 3D computer-generated character that produces sign language through animated hand movements, facial expressions, and body posture. Signing avatars are used in educational contexts to deliver accessi…
- Signing Space (Sign Space)
- The three-dimensional area in front of a signer where sign language is produced, typically extending from waist to head height and shoulder width to either side. In American Sign Language and other si…
- South African Sign Language (SASL)
- The primary sign language used by the Deaf community in South Africa, recognized as one of the country's official languages under the Constitution. SASL has its own grammar, syntax, and vocabulary dis…
- Spatial Grammar (Spatial Syntax)
- Spatial grammar is the set of grammatical rules that signed languages express through the three-dimensional signing space in front of the signer, rather than through linear word order. Signers establi…
- Spatial Inflection (Verb Agreement, Directional Verb, Inflecting Verb)
- A grammatical process in sign languages where the motion path and orientation of a verb sign are modified based on the 3D locations in space that have been assigned to its subject and/or object during…
- Stokoe Notation (Stokoe System)
- A notational system for representing the formational components of sign language signs, devised by William C. Stokoe for the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. The sys…
- Swedish Sign Language (SSL, Svenskt teckenspråk)
- The sign language used by the Deaf community in Sweden, recognized as an official minority language since 1981. Like other national sign languages, SSL is a complete natural language with its own gram…
- Syntactic NMS (Syntactic Non-Manual Sign)
- Non-manual signs that define sentence types and grammatical structure in sign languages. In ASL, syntactic NMS include raised eyebrows for Yes/No questions, furrowed brows and forward head tilt for WH…