Cued Language Transliterators for the Deaf Community at the Biden Harris Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony

This represents an unprecedented inclusion effort for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

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Jan 19, 2021, 08:23 ET

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Biden-Harris Inaugural Committee will be providing Cued Language Transliterators for President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris' inaugural ceremony.

This commitment to accessibility is unprecedented and ensures that deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) Americans who use Cued American English will have access to the ceremony via cueing for the first time. The National Cued Speech Association (NCSA) wishes to express its gratitude for this effort.

Viewers seeking access to the inaugural ceremony via cued English should go to bideninaugural.org or to any Biden Inaugural Committee social media channels.

The NCSA wants to share the following:

Cued Speech is a mode of communication that makes conventionally spoken languages visually accessible for individuals who are D/HH. Cued Speech itself is not a language. It is a means of visual language access. The language being made accessible by cued English is English.
Cueing started at Gallaudet University in 1966 when researchers explored how D/HH children could gain visual access to the phonological building blocks of language that lead to literacy development.
In cued English, eight handshapes represent consonants. Four placements around the mouth represent vowels. Combining handshapes & placements with mouth movements produces visual English in real time.
There are 60+ cued languages around the world.
According to the National Center for Hearing Assessment & Measurement (NCHAM ), approximately 12% of families with children under the age of 10 who are DHH use cued English as the primary language & mode in their home.
The American D/HH community is diverse & is composed of people who use cued English, American Sign Language, listening & spoken language & combinations thereof.
The NCSA advocates for children who are D/HH (& other children who could benefit from Cued Speech) to acquire language via a collaborative environment in which families are given the tools & resources to make themselves their child's first & best language models.
Children who are D/HH should have every opportunity to connect with others who are also deaf or hard of hearing as well as receive complete access to language throughout their formative, academic, & vocational years.
Language Matters, Inc. will provide the Cued Language Transliterators for this event.