1. Pro-Tactile Workshop
MRID Conference Rochester, MN October 19, 2014 Presented by Lee Clark and Kimberly Williams With Credit to aj Granda and Jelica Nuccio

2. Pro-Tactile: The DeafBlind WayBy
aj Granda and Jelica Nuccio
Pro-Tactile Training

3. Overview
‘Pro-Tactile’ is the socio-cultural philosophy currently shaping all deaf-blind practices: linguistics, interpersonal, and politics.
DB Community has contributed to this philosophy and method in close collaboration with aj Granda, Terra Edwards and Jelica Nuccio.

4. Definitions & Distinctions
‘Pro-tactile’ is:
a philosophy,
a method, and
an attitude.
It should not be reduced to Haptics (relating to the sense of touch) although it is very much about touch.

5. Responsibility
The philosophy of ‘Pro-Tactile’ is centered in the DB experience but it is also about responsibility of the DB person to:
take the initiative,
think for themselves,
seek out information, and
do tasks on their own rather than passively receiving information second-hand at the discretion of others.

6. Pro-, not Anti-
‘Pro-Tactile’ is pro-touch i.e. pro-tactile, pro-experience and pro-responsibility.
It is not anti-vision, anti-hearing or anti-SSPs.
Just as being “pro-reading” is not being “anti-math”, pro-ASL is not anti-English.
While ‘Pro-Tactile’ promotes the use of touch, it does not discourage any additional access a DB person may be able to make use of.

7. Pro-Tactile as a Method
As a method ‘Pro-Tactile’ supports ‘hands-on’ learning and ‘hands-on’ experience rather than an experience limited to the DB person’s partial vision / hearing or vicarious information.

8. Sighted Pro-Tactile Method
The way sighted people and deafblind people use touch will be different, but when sighted people are with DB people, this method instructs them (sighted people) to use touch to:
Maintain a presence (stay in touch with the DB person)

9. Staying in Touch
The next slide shows a picture of a sighted person using touch to communicate non-verbally. This may simply be “I’m here” or it may be back-channel information (feedback) during a conversation.

10. Notice the interpreter on the left staying in touch with the DB man
Notice the interpreter on the left staying in touch with the DB man. The interpreter on the right is doing the same, while the two DB people are using one hand to talk and one to listen and do back-channeling.

11. Pro-Tactile as an Attitude
‘Pro-Tactile’ as an attitude or value emphasizes:
The responsibility and ability of DB people to seek out and get direct information on their own, rather than to depend on mediated experiences as filtered through SSPs or others.
A rejection of the pressure from the dominant society to conform to sighted-hearing norms.

12. Pro-Tactile is for sighted people too

13. Sighted-hearing person

14. Sighted-hearing person

15. Sighted-hearing person
Sighted-Deaf
person

16. Radical
Sighted people listening tactually (as well as with their vision) is a radical thing. It is parallel to hearing people communicating with each other using Sign Language (and no voice) when in a deaf environment.
Thus ‘Pro-Tactile’ is also political. It challenges sighted privilege.

17. Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the study of efficient use of space to save our energy and prevent injury.
The work of communication is both mental and physical.
Focuses on the physical aspects of working and communicating with DB people.

21. Back-channeling

22. Back-Channeling
‘Back-channeling’ is the linguistic term for the response we give to the speaker as we listen. In English, it’s the “oh,” “umm,” “sheesh” to show our response.
In ASL it is all the facial expressions and head nods as well as the signs “[Y-hand-nod]” and “awful”.

23. Back-Channeling, cont.
Back-channeling can be verbal, or non-verbal, auditory, visual or tactual.
Back-channel signals indicate you are paying attention and listening.
They indicate your response or reaction (including feelings) to what is being said.

24. Tactual Back-Channeling
In the next slide, aj granda is talking to a group. Co-instructor Jelica Nuccio on her left is listening. Notice Jelica’s left hand ‘nodding’ on aj’s knee, as she listens.
The interpreter on aj’s right is also leaving her hand on aj’s knee to indicate her passive presence.

26. Reporting Back-Channeling
Back-channeling is what the listener gives while listening.
Feedback might come as verbal reporting of the responses of others.
For example, an SSP might inform the DB person that the clerk is nodding.

27. TASL

28. TASL: Tactile ASL
TASL is a new language that is scaffolded on, but distinct from VASL (visual ASL).
Since the beginning of the pro-tactile movement in 2007, TASL has been diverging from VASL, becoming its own distinct language.
Current research shows that new phonological, semantic, and deictic stems are emerging in TASL.

29. Signs Located on the Head
In visual ASL, signs made near the face are in the focal area of vision and thus can make minor distinctions that have meaning. For example the signs for ‘onion’ and ‘apple’ are only distinguished by a shift in location of 3-4” on the face.
Other sign pairs (e.g. ‘man/woman, brother/sister’) are similarly distinguished by such minimal differences in location.

30. Minimal Pairs: Spatial
These spatial distinctions are not clear tactually and thus the custom is to modify them slightly either in sign choice or in context. The sign chosen for ‘man’ for example is the one related to ‘boy’ but made with one firm movement.

31. Elements of TASL Elements of TASL include Movement (including rhythm)
Tension (intensity)
Percussion (e.g. one hand striking another)
Location
Handshape

32. TASL Classifiers
aj granda, Terra Edwards and Jelica Nuccio have theorized and played with ASL to modify the signs and their execution to make them clear tactually.
Instead of using the signer’s body to show relationships, the signer uses the listener’s body (the body of the DB person).

33. TASL Classifiers & Maps
Classifiers and describing space are especially different in TASL than in visual Sign Language.
You will, for example, sometimes need to use both hands to show relationships regardless of whether the DB person typically reads using only one hand.

34. TASL Classifiers and Maps
Tactile classifiers (using the listener’s body) is more clear and communicates more effectively than signing in an unmodified form of visual ASL or a signed form of English with many adjectives.
The same principle operates when describing spatial relations such as in describing the location of various things in a room.

35. Size, Shape & Location
ASL is particularly efficient at identifying and describing things using the characteristics of size, shape and location.
Without vision, this is often not clear. What is especially unclear is the relationship between and among parts.

36. Cat Sitting in the Tree
In the next slide, the signer (on the right) is using the DB listener’s arm as the ‘tree classifier’ instead of her own arm. This makes the spatial relations of cat to tree clear to the blind listener.

37. Tactile Classifier: Cat in Tree

38. Conclusion
Pro-tactile is the socio-cultural philosophy currently shaping all deaf-blind practices: linguistics, interpersonal, and politics.
Back-channeling is important
TASL is a new language

39. Experience is the Best Teacher!

40. Thank you for coming! Jelica Nuccio: jelica.nuccio@comcast.net