American Sign Language (ASL)

• Official language, visual in nature, has own syntax, grammatical structure
• Grows, changes over time
• Brain processes linguistic information through eyes instead of ears
• Facial expressions and body movements convey information

CART (Computer-Assisted Real-time Transcription)

• Provides an exact transcript of the lecture
• Stenotype machine connected to a laptop with abbreviation software
• Student reads transcription real-time from a second computer
• Student can type questions/comments to transcriber during class
• Questions/comments are read by transcriber
• Student receives hard copy of transcript

Captioning for TV/Video/DVD

• Narration, dialogue, music, and sound effects are converted to text displayed on a television screen
• Typically white upper-case letters against a black background

FM System

• Wireless, portable, battery-operated device that amplifies auditory signals
• Instructor wears microphone connected to transmitter
• Student wears headphones or ear buds connected to receiver
• Classroom conversations are not amplified