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This article explores the nexus between power, sport, and disability with a focus on Deaf rugby in Fiji. Based on semistructured interviews with players, officials, and stakeholders, this article outlines their pursuit of rugby and participation in a recent international tournament under Fiji's specific postcolonial social conditions. It examines what this experience means to the players and officials, and the sociopolitical significance it holds in the multiple relations of power that the game is embedded in. This article shows Deaf rugby as a significant counterhegemonic force that reconfigures Fiji's rugby discourse by appropriating its key constitutive element: anti-imperialist modern nationalism. This article further explores Deaf rugby's implication in prevailing gender/ethnoracial/corporeal politics with a view to offering nuanced insights into the question of resistance in/through disability sport in a Global South context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health literacy is strongly associated with health inequality among persons with deafness, and hypertension (HTN) is the most prevalent chronic disease among persons with deafness in South Korea. Despite its importance, research regarding the health literacy levels of persons with deafness with HTN in South Korea is lacking. This study aimed to comprehensively assess the health literacy levels of persons with deafness with HTN in South Korea, including linguistic, functional, and internet health literacy. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 95 persons with deafness with HTN were recruited through facilities associated with the deaf community. From August 2022 to February 2023, data were collected through face-to-face surveys attended by a sign language interpreter and online surveys. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman's correlation. Results: Approximately 62.1% of the participants exhibited a linguistic health literacy level corresponding to less than that of middle school students, and the total percentage correct of functional health literacy was 17.9%. Each domain of internet health literacy was low. Significant correlations were found between some aspects of health literacy. Conclusions: The study's findings highlight the low health literacy levels across various facets among persons with deafness with HTN in South Korea. Based on these findings, several strategies are suggested for developing HTN self-management interventions for persons with deafness. This study contributes to the foundational understanding of health literacy among persons with deafness with HTN in South Korea and provides valuable insights and guidance for developing HTN self-management interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a discrepancy between the hearing test results in patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) and their reported outcome measures. This is probably due to the presence of two elements in everyday situations: noise and head movements. We developed a stereo-audiometric test in noise with free head movements to evaluate movements and auditory performance in monaural and binaural conditions in normal hearing volunteers with one occluded ear. Tests were performed in the binaural condition (BIN), with the left ear (LEO) or the right ear occluded (REO). The signal was emitted by one of the seven speakers, placed every 30° in a semicircle, and the noise (cocktail party) by all speakers. Subjects turned their head freely to obtain the most comfortable listening position, then repeated 10 sentences in this position. In monaural conditions, the sums of rotations (head rotations for an optimal hearing position in degrees, random signal azimuth, 1 to 15 signal ad lib signal presentations) were higher (LEO 255 ± 212°, REO 308 ± 208° versus BIN 74 ± 76, p < 0.001, ANOVA) than those in the BIN condition and the discrimination score (out of 10) was lower than that in the BIN condition (LEO 5 ± 1, REO 7 ± 1 versus BIN 8 ± 1, respectively p < 0.001 and p < 0.05 ANOVA). In the monaural condition, total rotation and discrimination in noise were negatively correlated with difficulty (Pearson r = −0.68, p < 0.01 and −0.51, p < 0.05, respectively). Subjects' behaviors were different in optimizing their hearing in noise via head rotation. The evaluation of head movements seems to be a significant parameter in predicting the difficulty of monaural hearing in noisy environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic recognition of hand postures is an important research topic with many applications, e.g., communication support for deaf people. In this paper, we present a novel four-stage, Mahalanobis-distance-based method for hand posture recognition using skeletal data. The proposed method is based on a two-stage classification algorithm with two additional stages related to joint preprocessing (normalization) and a rule-based system, specific to hand shapes that the algorithm is meant to classify. The method achieves superior effectiveness on two benchmark datasets, the first of which was created by us for the purpose of this work, while the second is a well-known and publicly available dataset. The method's recognition rate measured by leave-one-subject-out cross-validation tests is 94.69% on the first dataset and 97.44% on the second. Experiments, including comparison with other state-of-the-art methods and ablation studies related to classification accuracy and time, confirm the effectiveness of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vulnerable youth and youth with disabilities are at great risk of not having their rights met. In addition, they face challenges with regard to empowerment and participation in their own lives. Youth development programmes frequently focus primarily on the individual skills of the youth. However, reviews have indicated that for youth to be able to drive change, additional opportunities at community and broader society levels are required. This project sought to evaluate the changes facilitated by the Changing the Story—Leadership Development Programme as implemented in the Youth Accountability and Deaf Inclusion in South Africa project, for both vulnerable and Deaf youth. A longitudinal Q-sort methodology was used to measure the youths' changes in perceptions. The results provided evidence of significant change following the programme, including increases in perceptions of empowerment within the community. Furthermore, although vulnerable and Deaf youth began the programme with differing perceptions of self, community and society, these perceptions were more aligned after completion of the programme. The results and challenges experienced using a longitudinal Q-sort methodology are presented and discussed. Recommendations and limitations are also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deaf individuals may report difficulties in social interactions. However, whether these difficulties depend on deafness affecting social brain circuits is controversial. Here, we report the first meta‐analysis comparing brain activations of hearing and (prelingually) deaf individuals during social perception. Our findings showed that deafness does not impact on the functional mechanisms supporting social perception. Indeed, both deaf and hearing control participants recruited regions of the action observation network during performance of different social tasks employing visual stimuli, and including biological motion perception, face identification, action observation, viewing, identification and memory for signs and lip reading. Moreover, we found increased recruitment of the superior‐middle temporal cortex in deaf individuals compared with hearing participants, suggesting a preserved and augmented function during social communication based on signs and lip movements. Overall, our meta‐analysis suggests that social difficulties experienced by deaf individuals are unlikely to be associated with brain alterations but may rather depend on non‐supportive environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To compare cochlear implant (CI) data logging of patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) and bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (biSNHL) in various acoustic environments and study the implications of data logging on auditory performance. Retrospective case control study. Adult CI patients with SSD or biSNHL from 2010 to 2021 with usage data collected at 3-, 6-, and 12-months following device activation were identified. The CI listening environment was defined as speech in noise, speech in quiet, quiet, music or noise. Auditory performance was measured using the CNC word, AzBio sentence tests and the Tinnitus Handicap Index (THI). 60 adults with SSD or biSNHL were included. CI patients with biSNHL wore their devices more than those with SSD at 3-months post-activation (11.18 versus 8.97 hours/day, p = 0.04), though there were no significant differences at 6-12 months. Device usage was highest in the speech in quiet environment. In SSD CI users, there was a positive correlation (p = 0.03) between device use and CNC scores at 12-months and an improvement in THI scores at 12-months (p = 0.0004). CI users with SSD and biSNHL have comparable duration of device usage at longer follow-up periods with greatest device usage recorded in speech in quiet environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To determine hearing preservation and subjective benefit after cochlear implant (CI) surgery in patients with low frequency hearing in the ear to be implanted (i.e., they have partial deafness, PD) and close to normal hearing in the other. Methods: There were two study groups. The test group was made up of 12 adult patients (mean age 43.4 years; SD 13.6) with normal hearing or mild hearing loss in one ear, and with PD in the ear to be implanted. The reference group consisted of 12 adult patients (mean age 44.5 years; SD 14.1) who had PD in both ears and who underwent unilateral implantation in their worse ear. Hearing preservation was assessed 1 and 14 months after CI surgery using the Skarzynski Hearing Preservation Classification System. The APHAB questionnaire was used to evaluate the benefit from the CI. Results: The differences in HP% between the groups were not significant: mean hearing preservation (HP%) in the test group was 82% one month after CI surgery and 75% some 14 months after implantation; corresponding results in the reference group were 71% and 69%. However, on the APHAB background noise subscale, the benefit in the test group was significantly larger than in the reference group. Conclusion: To a large extent it was possible to preserve low-frequency hearing in the implanted ear. This means that individuals with low frequency hearing in the implanted ear (partial deafness) and with normal hearing in the other generally received more benefits from cochlear implantation than did patients with partial deafness in both ears. We conclude that residual low frequency hearing in the ear to be implanted should not be considered a contraindication for a CI in a patient with single-sided deafness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Single-sided deaf patients following cochlear implantation often compare the sound quality of their implanted ear with normal hearing. The interaural differences can result in dissatisfaction with speech comprehension and reduced time of usage of the speech processor; hence, prolonging auditory adaptation time. The proposed calibration method presented in this study demonstrates how the frequency distribution of the cochlear implant can be set to adequately approximate the pitch perception of the contralateral normal hearing ear towards improving speech intelligibility in a noisy environment. Methods: In 12 postlingual single-sided deaf patients, subjective interaural pitch-matching was carried out to determine new central frequencies for the reallocation of the frequency bands of their speech processor (CP910, CP950 or CP1000, Cochlear, Australia). The patients were asked to compare the pitch of the tones presented to their normal hearing ear to the pitch of individual channels of their cochlear implant (CI522 or CI622, Cochlear, Australia). A third-degree polynomial curve was fit to the acquired matching frequencies to create the new frequency allocation table. Audiological measurements (free-field aided thresholds, speech reception thresholds, and monosyllabic word recognition score) in noise, together with a Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ12) questionnaire (short version of the original SSQ) results were evaluated prior to the pitch-matching procedure, and again, 2 weeks later. Results: The free-field aided thresholds of the patients showed no greater shift than ± 5 dB following the procedure; however, their monosyllabic word recognition score in noise improved significantly (mean − 9.58%, SD 4.98%, matched pairs t test comparison: p < 0.001). The results of the SSQ12 questionnaire also showed significant improvement in speech intelligibility, sound localization, and sound quality (mean 0.96 points, SD 0.45 points, matched pairs t test comparison: p < 0.001). Conclusions: Matching the pitch perception of the implanted cochlea with the sensation of the normal hearing contralateral ear, resulted in significant changes in the quality of hearing in patients with single-sided deafness. It is plausible the procedure can usher positive results in bimodal patients or following sequential bilateral cochlear implantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: While positive contributions of religion and spirituality (R/S) to quality of life (QOL) are confirmed by a growing body of evidence, only limited research has involved people with intellectual disabilities and so far, no studies included prelingually deaf individuals with intellectual disabilities. This study explores the role of R/S in people with intellectual disabilities and deafness living in three therapeutic living communities specifically adapted to their needs. Methods: Forty-one individuals (mean age: 46.93 years, 43.9% female) with prelingual deafness and mild to moderate intellectual disability participated in structured sign language interviews adapted to their cognitive–developmental level, regarding their QOL, individual spirituality and participation in spiritual practices in the community. Participants' QOL was assessed with an established short measure for QOL (EUROHIS–QOL) adapted to easy-to-understand sign language. With 21 participants, qualitative interviews were conducted. In addition, proxy ratings from caregivers were obtained. Results: The participants' ratings of their individual spirituality (r = 0.334; p = 0.03) and spiritual practices-in-community (r = 0.514; p = 0.00) correlated positively with their self-reported QOL. Qualitative findings illustrate the importance of R/S and give insights into R/S concepts and practices. Conclusions: Personal spirituality and participating in spiritual practices are positively related to self-reported quality of life in deaf individuals with intellectual disability (ID). As a consequence, access to spiritual and religious services should be included in comprehensive programs and society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review the literature on the convergence between educational and sociocultural aspects and their relationship with the development of cognitive skills in deaf people. We present a brief overview of the neuroanatomical layers that underlie cognitive processes and the differences between deaf and hearing people due to sensory deprivation. Most of the research indicated that there are differences in some cognitive functions, although there is no agreement whether this is due to factors such as sociocultural context, late language acquisition, or brain rewiring. Finally, the need to study the educational, social and individual contexts where Deaf children develop in an interdisciplinary way is discussed in order to propose tools that promote their optimal cognitive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessibility is a concept that refers to providing the required affordance to users with some kind of disability, or even without it, to use a website. Taking into account this goal, we can find two perspectives, those proposed by government laws, such as the section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act or the European Accessibility Act, and those recommendations proposed by consortia like the World Wide Web Consortium, which through the Web Accessibility Initiative proposes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. In general, laws or recommendations, define the good practices to make a website and their content accessible. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the accessibility of websites with deaf users. The evaluation consists of the accomplishment of a set of tasks by deaf users in four websites. The natural hypothesis should be that the use of accessibility guidelines improve the user performance to achieve a task in websites that followed the guidelines. As a result, by observing interactions and listen to the comments of deaf users suggests that the content and the design of the web pages affect the success rate of the tasks. This content is affected more with regard to the level of their second language, in this case Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hand gesture recognition (HGR) is a primary mode of communication and human involvement. While HGR can be used to enhance user interaction in human-computer interaction (HCI), it can also be used to overcome language barriers. For example, HGR could be used to recognize sign language, which is a visual language expressed by hand movements, poses, and faces, and used as a basic communication mode by deaf people around the world. This research aims to create a new method to detect dynamic hand movements, poses, and faces in sign language translation systems. The Long Short-Term Memory Modification (LSTM) approach and the Mediapipe library are used to recognize dynamic hand movements. In this study, twenty dynamic movements that match the context were designed to solve the challenge of identifying dynamic signal movements. Sequences and image processing data are collected using MediaPipe Holistic, processed, and trained using the LSTM Modification method. This model is practiced using training and validation data and a test set to evaluate it. The training evaluation results using the confusion matrix achieved an average accuracy of twenty words trained, which was 99.4% with epoch 150. The results of experiments per word showed detection accurateness of 85%, while experiments using sentences only reached 80%. The research carried out is a significant step forward in advancing the accuracy and practice of the dynamic sign language recognition system, promising better communication and accessibility for deaf people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication with the hearing impaired is a great challenge in the society today. Sign language is a significant communication method between deaf persons and their societies. However deaf and dumb people have an issue in this field as sign language may cause a lot of misunderstanding. Today, many new technologies are becoming more applicable and cheaper. The intelligent algorithms and techniques are improved and becomes more accurate. Gesture recognition is one of the key technologies that facilitate many people life. Translating signs language into text and speech is an attractive field for researchers from past few years. However, it did not receive adequate interest in Sultanate of Oman. The proposed recognition system utilizes the Convolution neural network (CNN) method. It aims to convert the dynamic deaf signs from live video to text and speech using raspberry pi device and normal camera. The dataset for this project was created by the researchers. It contains 62000 (64x64 pixel) images of the 30 letter of Alphabets and 1 Word. Each pattern has 2000 images that are divided into 1750 images for training and 250 images for testing. The proposed system achieved 99.8 % accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) in patients with singlesided deafness (SSD) is rare. The prognosis of the sole serviceable hearing ear is very important for these patients. However, the clinical characteristics and prognosis of SSNHL in SSD patients are not well-documented. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the clinical features and treatment outcomes of SSNHL in SSD patients. Methods: Clinical data of 36 SSD patients and 116 non-SSD patients with unilateral SSNHL from January 2013 to December 2022 were retrospectively investigated. The clinical characteristics of the SSD patients were analyzed. All SSD patients were treated with intratympanic steroids plus intravenous steroids. Pure-tone average (PTA) and word recognition score (WRS) before and after treatment were recorded. The hearing recovery of SSNHL in SSD patients in comparison with non-SSD patients was explored. Auditory outcomes in SSD patients with different etiologies were also compared. Results: Initial hearing threshold showed no significant differences between the SSD group and the non-SSD group (66.41 ± 24.64 dB HL vs. 69.21 ± 31.48 dB HL, p = 0.625). The SSD group had a higher post-treatment hearing threshold (median (interquartile range, IQR) 53.13(36.56) dB HL) than the non-SSD group (median 32.50(47.5) dB HL, p < 0.01). Hearing gains (median 8.75(13.00) dB) and the rate of significant recovery (13.89%) were lower in the SSD group than in the non-SSD group (median 23.75(34.69) dB, 45.69%). The etiology of SSD was classified as SSNHL, special types of infection, chronic otitis media, and unknown causes. SSNHL accounted for the maximum proportion (38.9%) of causes of SSD in the SSD group. Hearing gains were lower in the SSNHL-SSD group than in other causes of the SSD group. A binary logistic regression analysis demonstrated that SSD serves as an indicator of unfavorable hearing recovery outcomes (OR = 5.264, p < 0.01). Conclusion: The prognosis of SSNHL in SSD patients is unsatisfactory. SSNHL accounts for the maximum proportion of causes of SSD in this group of patients. For SSD patients caused by SSNHL, less hearing improvement after treatment was expected when SSNHL occurred in the contralateral ear in comparison with SSD patients with other causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify the most common thinking styles of deaf/hard-of-hearing (DHH) and hearing adolescent students, and to examine the extent to which thinking styles predict self-efficacy. It also explored gender-based differences in the thinking styles and self-efficacy of DHH students. Data were collected from 145 DHH and 160 hearing adolescent students in Saudi Arabia (Mage = 17.8 years; SDage = 3.57 years) using the Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised II (TSI-R2) and Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C). Findings revealed that the executive, local, conservative, and chaotic thinking styles were more prevalent among DHH students, while the legislative, universal, liberal, and critical thinking styles were more prevalent among hearing students. Those with Type I thinking styles had higher levels of self-efficacy, while those with Type II thinking styles had lower levels of self-efficacy. There were gender-based differences in the self-efficacy of DHH and hearing students, with higher scores observed among females. Further, for DHH students, the Legislative, Liberal, and Internal thinking styles were more prevalent among males rather than females, while the Executive, Hierarchical, Conservative, External, Judicial, and Local thinking styles were more prevalent among females rather than males. For hearing students, males were more likely to exhibit the Liberal, External, and Oligarchic styles, while females were more likely to exhibit the Global, Executive, Conservative, Local, and Hierarchical styles. Together, these findings suggest the need to train DHH students to use positive thinking styles by implementing courses in their school curricula that enable them to reflect on their self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Early linguistic background, and in particular, access to language, lays the foundation of future reading skills in deaf and hard-of-hearing signers. The current study aims to estimate the impact of two factors - early access to sign and/or spoken language - on reading fluency in deaf and hard-of-hearing adult Russian Sign Language speakers. Methods: In the eye-tracking experiment, 26 deaf and 14 hard-of-hearing native Russian Sign Language speakers read 144 sentences from the Russian Sentence Corpus. Analysis of global eye-movement trajectories (scanpaths) was used to identify clusters of typical reading trajectories. The role of early access to sign and spoken language as well as vocabulary size as predictors of the more fluent reading pattern was tested. Results: Hard-of-hearing signers with early access to sign language read more fluently than those who were exposed to sign language later in life or deaf signers without access to speech sounds. No association between early access to spoken language and reading fluency was found. Discussion: Our results suggest a unique advantage for the hard-of-hearing individuals from having early access to both sign and spoken language and support the existing claims that early exposure to sign language is beneficial not only for deaf but also for hard-of-hearing children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of a sign language town, or a Deaf utopia, where Deaf and signing people can come together to live in a geographical or figurative homeland has long persisted in US Deaf life, letters, and literature. In the wake of the Milan Congress of 1880, Alexander Graham Bell's alarming rhetoric concerning "a deaf mute variety of the human race" and the "campaign against sign language," the idea of a homeland, and a Deaf commonwealth took on additional resonance. However, in the absence of geographical sign language towns, utopian and figurative homelands then became an important possible alternative through a communal shared space formed through language, culture, and customs. Homelands for Deaf people can extend to both physical spaces like Deaf schools and Deaf clubs or metaphorical and creative spaces, as in Deaf literature itself. Additionally, this article uses the proclaimed "first Deaf culture novel," Douglas Bullard's Islay: A Novel (1986), about a fictional Deaf republic, as a brief case study of several different overlapping cultural, social, artistic, and literary movements; written Deaf literature before and after this novel is, in some ways, markedly different, and in other ways, much the same due to the ways in which language and modality schemas are invoked in imaginative literature written in English. This study provides additional literary and cultural context for Islay as well as a brief history of Deaf creative writing in prose in relation to key mid-to-late twentieth century Deaf cultural and social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to information is a right that should not be limited because of being a member of a linguistic minority. The Deaf Community, which has its own language and culture, faces limitations in access to the media, such as open-signal television, unlike hearing people. This phenomenon was investigated from the point of view of people from the Deaf Community in order to be able to raise coherent proposals to meet their needs. The objective was to know the perception of members of the Peruvian Deaf Community about the interpretation in Peruvian Sign Language (PSL) in open signal television channels in Peru. It was a qualitative study of phenomenological design in which a group of people representing the Deaf Community of Lima, Peru participated. Group interviews were conducted with the presence of an interpreter known by all the interviewees. The results show that the Deaf Community interviewed perceives that there are deficiencies in terms of the number of interpreters and the space assigned to them on screen. The people interviewed stated that the Deaf Community experiences a feeling of isolation and mockery due to the small number of programs that are interpreted and the appointment of interpreters who do not adequately convey the information. In addition, they consider that there is a need for better training of interpreters in aspects such as linguistic diversity and the use of classifiers and spacing. Based on the findings and their interpretation, the researchers make some final considerations to promote good practices aimed at reducing the gap in access to information for the Deaf Community in Lima, based on inclusion and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducted a critical analysis of the role of institutional practice in promoting inclusive education for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students in Saudi Arabian schools. Considering disabilities based on multiple models and theories enhances understanding and helps develop accessible educational settings. To successfully implement inclusive education, this study conducted a rigorous qualitative analysis with a focus group with eleven participants, including teachers of DHH students, general education teachers, principals, supervisors, and parents of DHH students. Content analysis of participants' responses was conducted to identify major themes and subthemes. The results revealed providing appropriate educational environment as the major theme, and comprehensive environmental, support services, individualized education programs, general education teachers, and role of parents as sub-themes. Moreover, the findings emphasized the role of inclusive education regulations through interpretations of existing laws and expansion of prevention policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests Deaf signers may have different short-term and working memory processes compared with hearing nonsigners due to prolonged auditory deprivation. The direction and magnitude of these reported differences, however, are variable and dependent on memory modality (e.g., visual, verbal), stimulus type, and research design. These discrepancies have made consensus difficult to reach which, in turn, slows progress in areas such as education, medical decision-making, and cognitive sciences. The present systematic review and meta-analysis included 35 studies (N = 1,701 participants) that examined verbal (n = 15), visuospatial (n = 10), or both verbal and visuospatial (n = 10) serial-memory tasks comparing nonimplanted, Deaf signers to hearing nonsigners across the life span. Multivariate meta-analyses indicated a significant, negative effect of deafness on verbal short-term memory (forward recall), g = −1.33, SE = 0.17, p <.001, 95% CI [−1.68, −0.98], and working memory (backward recall), g = −0.66, SE = 0.11, p <.001, 95% CI [−0.89, −0.45], but no significant effect of deafness on visuospatial short-term memory, g = −0.055, SE = 0.17, p = 0.75, 95% CI [−0.39, 0.28]. Visuospatial working memory was not analyzed due to limited power. Population estimates for verbal and visuospatial short-term memory were moderated by age wherein studies with adults demonstrated a stronger hearing advantage than studies with children/adolescents. Quality estimates indicated most studies were of fair quality, with only 38% of studies involving Deaf authors. Findings are discussed in the context of both Deaf equity and models of serial memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text proposes to discuss access to mathematical knowledge “problems of additive structures with natural numbers”, in inclusive classrooms based on tasks structured in variables that legitimize the differences of deaf students. Therefore, it is based on Vergnaud’s Theory of Conceptual Fields, for the deepening of studies referring to the mathematical knowledge considered; on Chevallard’s Anthropological Theory of Didactics, for the development of research; and it conjectures that T4TEL is a possibility for the implementation of access to mathematical knowledge for students with different specific needs, in the same school environment. For the development of the investigation, the Conceptual Field of Additive Structures established by Vergnaud was considered, as the Epistemological Reference Model, to develop a didactic device based on T4TEL, considering didactic variables that considered the differences of deaf students. The device was validated in two specialized institutions for deaf students, and it was later implemented in a class with hearing and deaf students. Among the conclusions, it is highlighted that, supported by T4TEL and structured in legitimizing variables, it is possible to generate a set of tasks that can contribute not only to deaf and hearing students having access, simultaneously, to the mathematical knowledge studied, but also, that considering variables that legitimize differences when developing tasks makes them potentially inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Ciencias Sociales (13159518) is the property of Revista de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad del Zulia Venezuela and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines David Lodge's novel Deaf Sentence (2008), which focuses on the life of Desmond, a retired professor of linguistics. I argue that this text offers a standpoint through which readers can visualise the global phenomenon of population ageing and address the question of global responsibility. I look at Deaf Sentence within the tradition of the Bakhtinian polyphonic novel and through the lens of the campus novel that Lodge discusses in his critical writing. The analysis of dialogism and self‐reflexivity illuminates the reverberations of global ageing on the life of Desmond, situating questions of wellbeing and demography within a narrative perspective. Detailing their struggles with isolation, incontinence and erectile dysfunction, the narration of Desmond and his father growing older sheds light on the limitations of biomedical scripts for older men based on bodily control and sexual performativity. Considering the tension of biomedical discourses and gender expectations informing the cultural construction of ageing in the global North, I contend that Lodge's writing exposes the limits of the neoliberal ideals of self‐sufficiency and individual responsibility at the heart of the notion of successful ageing. Echoing Desmond's self‐reflection, Deaf Sentence offers its reader a standpoint through which to reflect on his problematic participation in the neoliberal, patriarchal regimes that marginalise him. Interpreting the novel as a space for deconstructing the ideal of an autonomous and independent subject postulated by neoliberal discourses, I read Deaf Sentence as an invitation to its readers to embrace their own vulnerability, fostering ethics of care towards themselves and the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closed Captioning (CC) is a telecommunications service to display textual information equivalent to audio. Although the primary consumer group is Deaf (D) and Hard of Hearing (HOH) viewers, they are typically excluded from the quality assessment process. Including D and HOH viewers for all assessments is nearly impossible and requires enormous effort. One solution is to use machine learning algorithms to replicate human subjective evaluation of the quality of CC. In this paper, a multi-label classifier was trained using an active learning algorithm with D and HOH viewers, predicting human subjective ratings on the various quality of CC. An online user study was conducted to train the multilayer perception with D and HoH participant subjective quality assessment rating data on machine-queried CC encoded to short video clips in various genres. The result revealed the possibilities of using an automated assessment system to predict the human perceived quality of CC, human preferences and perceiving behaviour upon viewing CC with deliberate error inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: to identify the level of physical self-concept among deaf and hard of hearing people who practice swimming, as well as identifying the differences according to the variable (management and training/sports rehabilitation). The study sample consisted of ten deaf and hard of hearing people studying physical education at Hashemite University their average age (21 year), average weight (60 k.g.) average length (157 c.m.). Methods: The research used a descriptive approach using the questionnaire for its suitability to the nature and objectives of the study. The researchers also conducted transactions of honesty and stability on the study tool to ensure its suitability for the study, where the data were processed statistically using (Frequency, Percentage Means, SD, t-test). Results: The results indicated that the level of physical self-concept among deaf and hard of hearing people practicing swimming came with average (4.65) and SD (0.27) wich means high level of selfconsept. The results showed no statistically significant differences according to specialization. Conclusion: The researchers recommend conducting more studies on other categories of people with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Ensino em Artes, Moda e Design is the property of Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sign language recognition is a significant cross-modal way to fill the communication gap between deaf and hearing people. Automatic Sign Language Recognition (ASLR) translates sign language gestures into text and spoken words. Several researchers are focusing either on manual gestures or non-manual gestures separately; a rare focus is on concurrent recognition of manual and non-manual gestures. Facial expression and other body movements can improve the accuracy rate, as well as enhance signs' exact meaning. The current paper proposes a Multimodal –Sign Language Recognition (MM-SLR) framework to recognize non-manual features based on facial expressions along with manual gestures in Spatio temporal domain representing hand movements in ASLR. Our proposed architecture has three modules, first, a modified architecture of YOLOv5 is defined to extract faces and hands from videos as two Regions of Interest. Second, refined C3D architecture is used to extract features from the hand region and the face region, further, feature concatenation of both modalities is applied. Lastly, LSTM network is used to get spatial-temporal descriptors and attention-based sequential modules for gesture classification. To validate the proposed framework we used three publically available datasets RWTH-PHONIX-WEATHER-2014T, SILFA and PkSLMNM. Experimental results show that the above-mentioned MM-SLR framework outperformed on all datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Normal-hearing people use sound as a cue to recognize various events that occur in their surrounding environment; however, this is not possible for deaf and hearing of hard (DHH) people, and in such a context they may not be able to freely detect their surrounding environment. Therefore, there is an opportunity to create a convenient device that can detect sounds occurring in daily life and present them visually instead of auditorily. Additionally, it is of great importance to appropriately evaluate how such a supporting device would change the lives of DHH people. The current study proposes an augmented-reality-based system for presenting household sounds to DHH people as visual information. We examined the effect of displaying both the icons indicating sounds classified by machine learning and a dynamic spectrogram indicating the real-time time–frequency characteristics of the environmental sounds. First, the issues that DHH people perceive as problems in their daily lives were investigated through a survey, suggesting that DHH people need to visualize their surrounding sound environment. Then, after the accuracy of the machine-learning-based classifier installed in the proposed system was validated, the subjective impression of how the proposed system increased the comfort of daily life was obtained through a field experiment in a real residence. The results confirmed that the comfort of daily life in household spaces can be improved by combining not only the classification results of machine learning but also the real-time display of spectrograms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: it has been shown that health services offered to deaf people present a limitation in patient/health professional communication, mainly due to their lack of knowledge of sign language. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sign language training to decrease social distance and increase the cultural competencies of the physical therapist, during the initial interview with deaf people. Material and method: quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design. A virtual training of two consecutive Saturdays totalling 4.5 hours was developed and facilitated for eleven physical therapists on the deaf community and sign language in the physical therapy setting. Participants were assessed through a video in which they practiced several questions from the initial interview in physical therapy using signs. A pretest and a post-test were administered to measure knowledge, attitudes, sensitivity, beliefs, and skills before and after training. Results: the results of the study showed an increase in the correct answers for the knowledge post-test (p = 0.005) and there were changes in attitudes (p = 0.032), sensitivity (p = 0.005), beliefs (p = 0.005) and skills (p = 0.003) of the participants. Conclusion: the training was effective in increasing the cultural competencies of the physical therapist group to the deaf community and decreasing the social distance between physical therapists and these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Romantic-era deaf-related comedy, which explores the challenges of communication between deaf and hearing individuals, highlighting the accommodation and disruption of conversations. Topics discussed include the comedic use of disability and deafness, the dynamics of Romantic sociability, and the nuanced engagement with conventions of polite communication in plays like "Deaf as a Post."

Multilingualism serves an important function in the characterization of an audiovisual product; thus, its representation in translations demands scientific attention. The task of rendering multilingualism in translation becomes more complicated when no or limited access to the original audio content is possible. This being so, this study investigates the representation of multilingualism in English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) and Persian dubbing of four polyglot films. It examines and discusses the strategies adopted by translators in eight translations, both the SDH and dubbed versions. The results indicate that translators employ a variety of solutions and strategies to tackle challenges and render the third language (L3), but still dubbing tends to neutralize L3 in most instances. In the case of SDH, L3 was made explicit, but the high frequency of homogenising strategies and the loss of L3 in the translations were noticeable. These results could be of use for both cinema and translation professionals and non-professionals, particularly for enhancing media accessibility (MA) for the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) community, besides adding to the body of studies on the translation of multilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, numerous variations of subtitling approaches, which have been variously defined as enriched, creative, dynamic, emotive (Neves 2018), but also 'creactive' (Sala Robert 2016), have been put forward by scholars in the attempt to diversify and expand the audiences' access to audiovisual products through subtitles. Also, there has been a significant growth in international film festivals which, alongside long-established festivals, have contributed to providing audiences with a cultural window on the world. In Italy, for example, there are hundreds of film festivals, which vary in terms of size, subject-matter, and genre. Against the backdrop of recent research on audience(s) attending film festivals (Di Giovanni 2020), accessibility studies (Greco 2018), and preferences and familiarity with various types of subtitles for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people (Romero-Fresco 2015), this paper aims to introduce the notion of inclusive subtitling and to propose guidelines and applications within the context of accessible film festivals and cultural events. The corpus for this empirical study consists of the short films competing in the eleventh and twelfth editions of the Sicilia Queer Film Fest, inclusively subtitled. Results will prove that 'inclusive subtitles' have the potential to cater to more varied needs, embracing settings such as film festivals, theatres, museums, galleries, and similar cultural contexts. In line with Greco's (2018) universalist approach, and in contrast with the recent introduction of the term by Martínez-Lorenzo (2020) applied to minoritised languages, inclusive subtitles is an expression that refers to intralingual or interlingual subtitles, open or closed (with the aid of external tools, such as an app) and applied specifically to film festivals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In comparison to other grammatical categories, the verb is considered as an abstract category. Due to hearing limitations, deaf people make mistakes in using words that have abstract meanings; therefore, to examine the verb category, the authors collected about 4500 sentences in the writings of 10 deaf female students in the second and third grades of middle school during an academic year in Kermanshah province. The purpose of this study is to investigate the usage of the two most frequent verbs "be" and "have" in the participants' writings. Following this goal, two questions arose: a) relating these verbs, what kinds of semantic errors are found in the writings of the deaf? b) What are the effects of the semantic and cognitive natures of these two verbs on the extent to which they are used and on their associated errors? The results of this study showed that the selectional errors (using the verbs "be" and " have" instead of each other or instead of other verbs), Argument structure errors, and adding an extra “be” verb error are the high-frequency errors, respectively. This shows that despite the overuse of these verbs, participants are not aware of their semantic distinctions of them. Furthermore, Along with the Cognitive Grammar doctrine, the authors believe that since imperfective verbs’ component states do not change and are constant over time are used more than other verbs. In addition, little content and highly schematic characterization of the verb “be” are the main reasons for the overuse of this verb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores what deaf signing diversity means for the creation of effective online signed language translations in Australia and for language theory more generally. We draw on the translanguaging and enregisterment literature to describe the communication practices and individual repertoires of deaf Auslan signers, and to problematise the creation of translations from English into Auslan. We also revisit findings from focus group research with deaf audiences and translation practitioners to identify key elements of existing translations that were problematic for many deaf viewers, and to illuminate what makes an act of translation from English into Auslan effective for signers who need these translations the most. One main challenge is the inherent hybridity of signed communication practices, resulting from variable language learning circumstances and other factors. Instead, signed communication practices are often shaped by what we refer to as the nascency principle: the perpetual redevelopment of new forms of expression for understanding the specific discourse and spatiotemporal context, by and for the signers who are physically present. This affects possibilities for enregisterment and therefore translations. We conclude with suggestions for improving translations and some broader implications for understanding and researching signed languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entrepreneurship proclivities of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community are under-researched or often grouped together into the broad disability literature. This study represents the first effort in developing a framework for deaf entrepreneurship. It departs from prior work by employing a mixed method study to examine the drivers, career motivations and prevalence of entrepreneurial activity of the deaf community in the United States. Building on the nascent entrepreneurship disability literature, this research develops and tests a deaf entrepreneurship framework. Results indicate that entrepreneurship in the deaf community is limited, primarily driven by push-oriented motivations–tightly linked to unique contextual factors. It also finds that the dynamics of entrepreneurship in the deaf community differ substantially from the existing disability entrepreneurship literature revealing the need for different policies. Implications for theory and policy along with directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Pensares em Revista is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

What kind of actions or reactions can sudden good news elicit in the experiencer? How can these actions/reactions be cognitively interpreted by others? Is there a nexus between social realities and the gospel? Using these questions as a spark, this article critically examines the cultural conceptualisations in Ijo Odi, a Yoruba gospel ballad by Elijah Akintunde. Drawing insights from Cultural Linguistics, this study argues that cultural symbols and structures (schemas, categories, and metaphors) are deployed in gospel music to capture the message of liberation from socio-economic challenges. Specifically, DANCE and DEAFNESS are mapped to express the kind of PERPLEXITY and ABSURDITY that characterise reaction to SUDDEN PLEASANT NEWS. The song also invokes cognitive schemas and cultural memories of dance, cultural class categories and metaphorization of dance and its internalized network of cognitive associations in the Yoruba world view to project the message of prosperity as a miracle. The study concludes that language is firmly grounded in cultural cognition and the complex socio-economic lives of Nigerians can be captured in the negotiation of spirituality in gospel songs. Future research may explore how the artistic performance of other music genres equally evoke cultural imageries in communicating other diverse issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KID syndrome is a congenital disorder combining keratitis, ichthyosis, and deafness. Herein, we report a case diagnosed in adulthood. A 29-year-old male patient with deafness and progressive loss of visual acuity in early childhood was consulted because of generalized scaly lesions that worsened over time. A skin examination revealed large blackish ichthyosiform scaly patches on the limbs, marked follicular keratosis on the trunk, palmoplantar keratoderma, small papules, sometimes hyperpigmented, on the mediofacial area, and significant xerosis. Dental anomalies such as malocclusion and several decayed teeth were present. The combination of ichthyosis lesions, deafness, and visual abnormalities led to the diagnosis of KID syndrome. Emollients and keratolytics were applied with a slight improvement in the skin lesions. The uniqueness of this observation was the late diagnosis of KID syndrome. Ichthyosis associated with neurosensory deficits should evoke KID syndrome despite the difficulty of molecular diagnosis in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej is the property of Redakcja Przegladu Socjologii Jakosciowej and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)