<p>This thesis o ers some prototypes to provide browser-based and mobile video communication services for Deaf people and evaluates these prototypes. The aim of this research is to identify an acceptable video communication technology for Deaf people by designing and evaluating several prototypes. The goal is to nd one that Deaf people would like to use in their day-to-day life. The thesis focuses on two technologies | browser-based systems and mobile applications. Several challenges emerged, for example, speci c Deaf user requirements are di cult to obtain, the technical details must be hidden from end users, and evaluation of prototypes includes both technical and social aspects. This thesis describes work to provide South African Sign Language communication for Deaf users in a disadvantaged Deaf community in Cape Town. We posit an experimental design to evaluate browser-based and mobile technologies in order to learn what constitutes acceptable video communication for Deaf users. Two browser-based prototypes and two mobile prototypes were built to this e ect. Both qualitative data and quantitative data are collected with user tests to evaluate the prototypes. The video quality of Android satis es Deaf people, and the portable asynchronous communication is convenient for Deaf users. The server performance is low on bandwidth, and will therefore cost less than other alternatives, although Deaf people feel the handset is costly.</p>

Communication is an integral part of life that allows for independence. It is common for individuals with disabilities to have deficits in communication, which often coincide with an increased presence of challenging behavior. One successful method of addressing this issue is the use of functional analysis to determine the function of challenging behavior. Next, functional communication training is used to teach the individual an a socially-appropriate and functionally-equivalent method of communication so that he/she no longer relies on challenging behavior in order to get his/her needs met. While functional communication training has proven to be a helpful procedure, it has been noted that it should be combined with other procedures for maximum efficiency. Additionally, very little research has targeted the generalization of skills acquired via functional communication training, although, research clearly identifies that generalization of skills as an area of difficulty among individuals with developmental disabilities. One possibility of improving both the intervention and the generalization of skills is the use of motivating operations. Motivating operations are any environmental change that alters the value of a reinforcer. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess the effects of potential motivating operations on functional communication training and generalization of newly acquired skills across four participants. This was accomplished by conducting functional analyses on each participant. The maintaining condition was repeated with pre-session conditions of either no access to the reinforcer or satiation with the reinforcer to identify motivating operations. These pre-session conditions, which were identified as motivating operations, were then implemented prior to functional communication training sessions, in the effect of no prior access to the reinforcer or 15 minutes of prior access to the reinforcer. This was again repeated with four different generalization assessments. Several patterns of behaviors resulted. First, functional communication training was improved for two participants when prior access to the reinforcer was implemented. Second, approximately half of the generalization assessments also showed improved responding when the participant had prior access to the reinforcer. Also, prior access to the reinforcer rarely impaired intervention or generalization. The results, limitations, and further research are discussed. / text

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The purpose of this study was to examine the processes and patterns of communicative interaction which preschool and elementary school-aged deaf and hearing siblings utilized to initiate, maintain and terminate dialogs during play. Specifically, the focus was to determine if the processes and patterns of communication differed when a deaf sibling interacted with an older hearing sibling who has been exposed primarily to a simultaneous visual-auditory (SimVA) pattern of communication, as compared to when a deaf sibling interacted with a younger hearing sibling who has been exposed to both a SimVA and a sequential visual (Seq V) pattern of communication. Video-taped playbouts were observed between each of two sibling dyads at play within a single family: (a) an older dyad composed of a seven-year-old hearing child and her five-year-old deaf sister, and (b) a younger dyad with the second-born deaf sister and her three-year-old hearing brother. The video-tapes were coded to determine: the kinds of play siblings engaged in; the use and expression of behavioral and communicative elements of attention-getting, exchange of information, and termination processes of dialogs; who initiated and terminated dialogs; the occurrence of turn-taking during message delivery; and the expression of patterns of communication used by siblings during dialogs. Only three of five possible kinds of play were actually noted, of which social play was the most frequently observed kind of play taking place between siblings within both dyads. In the older hearing and deaf sibling dyad, it was found that the older hearing sister predominately used visual processes and patterns of communicative interaction when conversing with her deaf sister, whereas the deaf sibling relied extensively on visual-auditory processes and patterns of communication when conversing with her hearing sister. In the younger dyad, visual-auditory patterns of communication predominated both hearing and deaf siblings' expression of processes and patterns of communication with each other. New terminology reflecting siblings' behavioral and communicative patterns of communication are introduced. This study represents the first known research examining the processes and patterns of deaf and hearing siblings' behavioral and communicative interactions of dialog. The findings are discussed in relation to potential applications to early intervention programs for hearing families with deaf and hearing siblings and to future research directions. Overall, the findings from this study appear to indicate that deaf and hearing siblings communicate in ways largely influenced by developmental maturation and the communicative environments to which each child has been exposed during language acquisition processes. The findings are also consistent with Vygotsky's theory of a sociocultural origin of language development.

It is practically impossible to peruse any discussion relating to psychology or philosophy without encountering frequent references to sense deprivation. These usually take the form of supposititious analogies regarding the world of the blind and the deaf, and, in many cases such analogies are entirely incorrect . It is the aim of the present work to place the aberrations from what is commonly accepted as normal mental development which accompany the loss of vision or hearing, in a more scientific and unprejudiced light than that in which they have hitherto been considered. The writer himself with vision so seriously defective as to place him well within t he scope of the common definition applied to blindness , recently became interested i n the purely psychological aspects of sense deprivation . It occurred to him that psychology as a science ought to be able to contribute toward the solution of the educational and social problems of the blind and the deaf, and he believes that the material incorporated in the following chapters is sufficient to justify this hypothesis. [...]

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<p>This thesis o ers some prototypes to provide browser-based and mobile video communication services for Deaf people and evaluates these prototypes. The aim of this research is to identify an acceptable video communication technology for Deaf people by designing and evaluating several prototypes. The goal is to nd one that Deaf people would like to use in their day-to-day life. The thesis focuses on two technologies | browser-based systems and mobile applications. Several challenges emerged, for example, speci c Deaf user requirements are di cult to obtain, the technical details must be hidden from end users, and evaluation of prototypes includes both technical and social aspects. This thesis describes work to provide South African Sign Language communication for Deaf users in a disadvantaged Deaf community in Cape Town. We posit an experimental design to evaluate browser-based and mobile technologies in order to learn what constitutes acceptable video communication for Deaf users. Two browser-based prototypes and two mobile prototypes were built to this e ect. Both qualitative data and quantitative data are collected with user tests to evaluate the prototypes. The video quality of Android satis es Deaf people, and the portable asynchronous communication is convenient for Deaf users. The server performance is low on bandwidth, and will therefore cost less than other alternatives, although Deaf people feel the handset is costly.</p>

After the release of Act No 108 of 1996, the status of the nine African languages of South Africa was elevated to that of English and Afrikaans and as a result, for the first time in the history of languages, South Africa became the first country in Africa to have eleven official languages. However, Sign Language for the Deaf was left out even though Section 6(4) of the South African School's Act No 84 of 1996 puts it clearly that "A recognized sign Language has the status of an official language for purposes of learning at a public school". In terms of Section 6 (5) (a) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Pan South African Language Board was also given a task to promote, and create conditions for the development and use of the Sign Language. DEAFSA (1996), states that Sign Language is the first or natural language for the Deaf. In Act No. 108 of 1996: Section 29(2) stipulates that: "Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice in public educational institution where that is reasonably practicable". The first objective of this study was to investigate if the South African Sign Language (SASL) was a fully-fledged language and to find out more about the present status of this language. The second objective was to examine if South African Sign Language was taught to Parents of Deaf children from the Zulu hearing community's point of view. Marcel Jousse; a French Jesuit Anthropologist and linguist, firmly believes in the anthropology of geste, which is synonymous with the anthropology of mimicry. This theory forms the basis of language acquisition of all peoples of the world. "The oral style with its mnemotechnic devices only comes into play once the individual has been informed by a reality which he receives and replays through his mimic being as a whole, (Fanning (1995:vii). This theory best describes the manner in which signers acquire their sign language, which solely depends on gestures made in the space by hands, body movements and facial expressions. In this theory, the anthropos plays out the receptions of the universe, replays them, stores them and revivifies them in expressions that are the mimisms of the whole human compound: corporeal, ocular and auricular manual. Unfortunately, the laryngo - buccal mimism is excluded in deaf people since they cannot speak. A multi-disciplinary approach from the educational, linguistic, historical, political and cultural perspectives was employed in collecting data for this study. The samples for the study comprised deaf learners, deaf educators, and hearing educators in schools for the deaf, interpreters of sign language, senior management from the schools of Deaf learners and parents of the deaf children. The researcher discovered that very little has been done by researchers and the government of the day to assist the deaf to gain recognition in his or her community. Parents of deaf children are unable to communicate fully with their children. The study also revealed that deaf children prefer to be taught by deaf teachers because they can identify much better with them. The researcher discovered that literature for the deaf is non-existent in all spheres of their lives. Sign language per se, is not taught as a subject. Deaf learners are not allowed to take their subjects at a Higher Grade; as a result, they feel extremely marginalized by the educators. Promoting this language would improve our trade and industry, travel & tourism etc. Student exchange programmes would also enhance the development of the sign language locally, nationally and internationally. The Deaf would become multilingual in the Sign Languages of the world when they come into contact with Deaf people from other parts of the world. This would involve sport, education, politics and other activities. The deaf would be equipped to meet various challenges in life. The Deaf people need to communicate freely amongst themselves and the hearing community of our country should make an effort to learn the Sign Language so that they are able to communicate with the deaf. This would improve the socio-economic status of our country. / Thesis (Ph.D)-University of Durban-Westville, 2004.