Thesis (M. Communication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-61).

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (Psy.D.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL, 2003. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-49).

Faculty of Education. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-367).

No description available.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of the competencies which are needed by teachers of the hearing impaired in 1980. A survey instrument containing 92 competency statements that were originally developed by Romaine Mackie in a study she conducted in 1956, was utilized in this inquiry. Subjective judgments as to the importance of the competency statements were made by current teachers of the hearing impaired and administrators of programs for hearing impaired students. In addition, the teachers rated their self-proficiency in each of the competencies.

A tese focaliza a temática do humor surdo, considerado como um componente da cultura surda. Busca seu aporte teórico nos Estudos Culturais e nos Estudos Surdos, além dos estudos sobre o humor. Sua questão central é: quais representações de surdos e características da cultura surda estão presentes em piadas que circulam nas comunidades surdas? Seus objetivos são analisar um conjunto de piadas consideradas clássicas pela comunidade surda, contrastando suas diferentes versões e identificando aspectos de humor preferentemente explorados. Principais critérios para escolha das piadas foram: ter personagens surdos e/ou temas da cultura surda; ter versão preferencialmente em Libras; apresentar mais de uma versão (de 4 a 6); ter tradição na comunidade surda. Foram analisadas 14 piadas, num total de 78 versões, com predominância de versões em vídeo, da internet ou de DVDs, mas também retiradas de material bibliográfico. A análise foi inspirada em pesquisadores da cultura surda (Strobel, 2009), do humor (Propp, 1992, Possenti, 1998; Bergson 1980), de representação (Hall, 1997), de identidade (Silva, 2000) e, especificamente, do humor surdo (Rutherford, 1983); Holcomb (1994); Renard & Lapalu (1997); Morgado (2011); Sutton-Spence & Napoli (2012). A análise qualitativa mostrou que a maioria das piadas apresenta temáticas relacionadas ao problema de comunicação, em situações em que o ouvinte não sabe Língua de Sinais. Neste caso, o humor atua no sentido de inverter os discursos correntes, em que os surdos são representados como tendo “dificuldade de comunicação”. Tais piadas integram a categoria “Rir dos outros”, em que a fonte do riso são as diferenças entre as experiências surdas e as experiências ouvintes. Nas primeiras, avulta o uso de línguas de sinais e a experiência visual, e o barulho não incomoda. Por outro lado, as piadas apresentam ouvintes atrapalhados com o uso da língua de sinais e/ou incomodados com o barulho. Rir dos ouvintes, dentro do chamado “riso de zombaria”, é frequente nas piadas. Elas manifestam também a importância da visibilidade, da experiência visual, com destaque para as vantagens de ser surdo, isto é, para o ganho surdo, que às vezes decorre de atitudes benevolentes de ouvintes, que são caridosos e não cobram dos surdos, ou do fato de que personagens surdos não são perturbados por barulhos e gritos. Outro grupo de piadas envolve o riso sobre coisas do próprio grupo, enquadradas na categoria “rir de nós mesmos”, abrangendo aquelas que apontam situações vantajosas ou situações que envolvem a urgência dos ouvintes em se livrarem da convivência com surdos. Também se enquadram nesta categoria piadas que exploram, de forma cômica, possíveis acidentes que uma comunicação com as mãos pode trazer, em função do espaço necessário para a realização dos sinais. As análises possibilitam concluir que as piadas surdas, algumas com décadas de tradição, além de provocarem riso, favorecem o sentimento de pertencimento a um grupo. Elas constituem parte da agenda de luta da comunidade surda, proporcionando alegria de viver e o fortalecimento do grupo e exercendo uma pedagogia cultural nesta comunidade, pedagogia relacionada à forma/necessidade/vontade de pertencimento ao grupo. / The thesis focuses on the theme of deaf humor, considered as a component of the deaf culture. It is theoretically supported by the Cultural Studies and Deaf Studies, in addition to studies on mood. Its central question is: which deaf representation and which characteristics of deaf culture are present on the jokes that go around on deaf communities? Its targets are to analyze a set of jokes considered classic by the deaf community, contrasting its different versions and identifying aspects of humor apparently explored. The main criteria to choose the jokes were: to have deaf characters and/or themes from deaf culture; to have preferably the version in LIBRAS; to present more than one version(from 4 to 6); to have tradition in the deaf community. There have been analyzed 14 jokes, in a total of 78 versions, predominantly video version, from the internet or from DVDs, but also some taken from bibliographical material. The analysis has been inspired in researches of deaf community (Strobel, 2009), from humor (Propp, 1992, Possenti, 1998; Bergson, 1980), from representation (Hall, 1997), from identity (Silva, 200) and, specifically, from deaf humor (Rutherford, 1983); Holcomb(1994); Renard & Lapalu (1997); Morgado (2011); Sutton-Spence & Napoli (2012).The qualitative analysis has brought up that the majority of the jokes present related themes to communication problems, in situations where the listener does not know Sign Language. In this case, humor acts in the sense of inverting the current speeches, where the deaf are represented as having "difficulties in communications". Such jokes are part of a category called " Laugh at other" where the source of laugh are the differences between deaf and listener experiences. In the first ones, it looms the use of sign language and visual experience, and the noise does not bother. In the other hand, the jokes present listeners disturbed by the use of sign language and/or bothered with noise. Laughing at the listeners, in the so called "mocking laughter" is frequent in the jokes. They also show the importance of visibility, from the visual experience, pointing the advantages of being deaf, or better, to the deaf gain, which sometimes comes from benevolent attitudes from listeners, who are charitable and do not charge from the deaf, or due to the fact that the deaf characters are not disturbed by noises and yells. Other set of jokes involves laughing at things common in the group, put on the category "laughing at ourselves", ranging those that pointed to advantageous situations or situations that involve listeners urgency in getting rid of living along with the deaf. Also, it falls into this category jokes that explore, in a comical way, possible accidents that a communication with hands can bring, depending on the space needed to carry out the signals. The analyzes enable us to conclude that deaf jokes, some with decades of tradition, besides provoking laughter, may favor the feeling of belonging to a group. They are part of the deaf community struggle agenda, providing joy of living and strengthening the group and exerting a cultural pedagogy in this community, pedagogy related to the way / need / desire of belonging to the group.

Masters of Science / This thesis offers 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 find 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, specific Deaf user requirements are difficult 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 effect. Both qualitative data and quantitative data are collected with user tests to evaluate the prototypes. The video quality of Android satisfies 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. / South Africa

Magister Scientiae - MSc / Communication tools such as text-based instant messaging, voice and video relay services, real-time video chat and mobile SMS and MMS have successfully been used among Deaf people. Several years of field research with a local Deaf community revealed that disadvantaged South African Deaf people preferred to communicate with both Deaf and hearing peers in South African Sign Language as opposed to text. Synchronous video chat and video relay services provided such opportunities. Both types of services are commonly available in developed regions, but not in developing countries like South Africa. This thesis reports on a workaround approach to design and develop an asynchronous video communication tool that adapted synchronous video codecs to store-and-forward video delivery. This novel asynchronous video tool provided high quality South African Sign Language video chat at the expense of some additional latency. Synchronous video codec adaptation consisted of comparing codecs, and choosing one to optimise in order to minimise latency and preserve video quality. Traditional quality of service metrics only addressed real-time video quality and related services. There was no such standard for asynchronous video communication. Therefore, we also enhanced traditional objective video quality metrics with subjective assessment metrics conducted with the local Deaf community. / South Africa