Transliteration

The word-by-word conversion of text from one system into another — for example, rendering a name in one script using the characters of another. In sign-language accessibility the term has a specific meaning: producing a signed form of spoken or written English by substituting a corresponding sign for each English word in English word order, rather than translating into a native signed language. Signed English and Signed Exact English are transliteration systems, not translations into ASL, and they omit the spatial grammar, classifier predicates, and non-manual signals that make ASL comprehensible to Deaf users. Transliterated output can appear superficially like sign language but often fails Deaf readers on the spatial-description and discourse tasks that matter most.