A deafblind lady and her interpreter using their palms to make the sign for the Protactile American Sign Language movement together.Image credits: Perkins School for the Blind

Have you ever heard of Protactile?

A movement that started in Seattle, in the 80s, it is a language that is slowly emerging as a new form of communication among the Deafblind in the US.

I once attended a three-week email seminar titled 'Introduction to Protactile Theory'. There were about 30 participants and many of them were very active. Most of the participants are from America so due to the time zone difference, I always woke up to many emails! By the end of the seminar, there were nearly 500 email exchanges. Participants ranged from linguistic researchers, educators, interpreters, Deafblind individuals, and disability professionals.

Discussions revolved around the Protactile language – covering topics like how the Protactile movement started, and how it gives autonomy to Deafblind individuals. The seminar was conducted by a Deafblind instructor. Throughout the seminar, we were given articles to read and reflect on. Guest lecturers were also invited to share their research on this language.

Unlike the American Sign Language (ASL) which is visual and signed in the air, Protactile is signed in contact space (i.e. on different parts of the body, including hands, wrists, arms, chest, upper back, and knees and thighs if seated). ASL users focus on hand shapes and facial expressions to communicate, but since the Deafblind cannot see these visual cues, Protactile replaces these with touch instead.


 

In Protactile, information is conveyed through touch. For instance, the width of an object could be expressed by placing two hands a distance apart on the listener’s arm (further apart to indicate a wider object). Its weight could then be expressed by applying pressure on the listener’s hand (i.e. more pressure to indicate a heavier weight). There is also reciprocity, as the listener responds by tapping on the signer to indicate their understanding, agreement or disagreement.

Back when this movement first started, many sight-reliant Deafblind individuals were communicating through interpreters, but with an increase in the number of Deafblind individuals, there was a dearth of interpreters. A few Deafblind leaders realised that they could communicate among themselves without relying on interpreters. With the new form of communication they created, they trained and conducted classes for other Deafblind individuals, giving them the autonomy to communicate independently and among themselves.

The Protactile movement thus reshaped the role of an interpreter – rather than just conveying information to Deafblind individuals, they are now co-navigators and partners as the Deafblind individual interacts with the environment.

A close-up shot of hands intertwined as a deafblind lady interacts with her interpreter through Protactile.

Image credits: Perkins School for the Blind

The seminar was really informative and got me thinking about the different ways a sight-reliant Deafblind, an audio-reliant and a touch-reliant Deafblind like myself would interact with the environment. I also observed that assistive technology is not widely used among these groups, and communication for them is still primarily more hands-on.

While I enjoyed the seminar, I wish I could have learned more expressions beyond “Yes” and “No”, especially because I already had some basic knowledge of the language. That said, I know that the language is still evolving, and like other forms of sign languages, it is not universal and will vary according to one’s culture.

Interested to find out more about Protactile? Check out the resources below:

  1. Introduction to Protactile Principles (Tactile Communications)
  2. The New Yorker article (featuring John Lee Clark, who facilitated the abovementioned email seminar)
  3. Q&A article on how Protactile American Sign Language is changing the conversation

 

Tan Siew Ling is fully Deafblind, having lost both her sight and hearing to a neurological condition, Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). She carries a screen reader with a Braille display, which she fondly names it as “Bear Bear”, everywhere she goes. Her humour, wordplay, and love of puns keep friends on their toes. She enjoys reading books in her free time and loves to pen down her thoughts, often on a whim, which can be entertaining at times, on her social media. When she is not writing or reading, she can be seen doing insanely 72kg leg presses or swinging a 20kg kettlebell to and fro. You can find out more about Siew Ling and her journey here.