Glossary

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Signbank(also: Auslan Signbank)

An online dictionary and lexical database for a sign language, typically providing video or image entries for each sign along with metadata such as handshape, region, and usage examples. Auslan Signbank is the preeminent online Auslan dictionary and serves trainee interpreters,…

Signed Chinese(also: 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 commonly used in official Chinese television news interpretation and in deaf…

Signed Exact English(also: 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). Unlike ASL, which is a distinct language with its own syntax and structure, Signed…

Signer(also: Sign Language User, Signing Person)

A person who communicates using sign language. In accessibility contexts, signers may be deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing individuals (such as interpreters, children of deaf adults, or others who have learned sign language). When creating accessible video content, signers…

Signer Box(also: 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 signer box is a critical concept in sign language video production, video…

Signing Avatar(also: 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 accessible sign language instruction, provide real-time multi-angle content, and offer…

Signing Avatar(also: 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 applications such as public digital terminals, websites, and educational…

Signing Space(also: 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 sign languages, this space serves grammatical functions—locations within it can…

Song Signing(also: Signed Song, Sign-Singing, Song Sign)

A performative art form in which song lyrics are interpreted in a sign language (most commonly ASL) alongside body movement, facial expression, rhythm, and spatial use, so that the performer simultaneously conveys linguistic meaning and musical qualities such as tempo, dynamics,…

South African Sign Language(also: 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 distinct from spoken South African languages. Like all sign languages, SASL is a…

Spatial Grammar(also: 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 establish referents at specific spatial loci, use directional verbs that agree with…

Spatial Inflection(also: 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 discourse. In American Sign Language and many other sign languages, signers…

Stokoe Notation(also: 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 system analyzes each sign into three parameters: location (where the sign is…

Swedish Sign Language(also: 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 grammar distinct from spoken Swedish. It uses manual signs (hand shapes, movements,…

Syntactic NMS(also: 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-questions, head shake for negation, and specific facial configurations for…

Transliteration(also: Sign Language 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…

Two-Handed Alphabet(also: Two-Handed Manual Alphabet, Two-Handed Fingerspelling)

A manual alphabet in which most letters are formed using both hands, typically with one hand acting as a base and the other as an articulator. Two-handed alphabets are used in Auslan, British Sign Language, and New Zealand Sign Language (the BANZSL family), in contrast to the…

VR-ASL(also: Virtual Reality American Sign Language)

A simplified adaptation of American Sign Language (ASL) designed for use in virtual reality environments where current controller tracking technology cannot capture the full range of hand and finger movements required for standard ASL. VR-ASL modifies or substitutes signs to…

Verb Inflection(also: Sign Language Verb Inflection, Directional Verbs)

In sign languages, verb inflection refers to the modification of a verb sign's movement path, speed, or direction to encode grammatical information such as subject, object, number, and aspect. Unlike spoken languages where inflection typically involves changes to word endings,…

Video Remote Interpreter(also: VRI, Video Remote Interpreting, Video Relay Interpreting)

A video telecommunication service that provides sign language interpretation remotely via video connection. VRI allows deaf or hard of hearing individuals to communicate with hearing people through an off-site interpreter who appears on a screen, translating between sign…

Video-Based Sign Language Dictionary(also: Video Sign Dictionary, Sign Language Video Lookup)

A digital dictionary that allows users to look up sign language signs by submitting video of themselves performing the sign, rather than searching by text or linguistic features. These systems use sign language recognition technology to match the user's input against a database…

Virtual Human(also: Embodied Agent, Animated Character)

A computer-generated human character used in accessibility applications to convey information through human-like movements, gestures, and expressions. In sign language accessibility, virtual humans serve as signing avatars that can automatically translate text or speech into…

Visual Language(also: Visuo-Gestural Language)

A language that uses the visual-gestural modality for communication, as opposed to the auditory-vocal modality of spoken languages. Sign languages are visual languages that encode information through hand shapes, movements, spatial relationships, facial expressions, and body…

Visual Vernacular(also: VV)

A deeply visual sign language performance art form rooted in visual storytelling, developed in the 1970s by deaf American actor Bernard Bragg and widely practiced internationally. Visual Vernacular combines gesture, facial expression, classifiers, body movement, and cinematic…

X3D(also: Extensible 3D, Extensible 3D Graphics)

An ISO-standard XML-based file format and runtime architecture for representing and communicating 3D scenes and objects on the web. X3D is the successor to VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) and is maintained by the Web3D Consortium. In the accessibility context, X3D is…