Pro-tactile ASL: A new language for the DeafBlind

This man is speaking a brand new language. You can’t see or hear it—it’s communicated through touch.

[idontcheckmynotifsdontboth]

amazing how much us humans are able to come up with to communicate.

[captainsteve]

I just met a couple in Virginia like this. He is deaf and she is deaf and almost completely blind. Watching them communicate was amazing. 😎

[jolieiler]

This is just absolutely mind-boggling that they've created such an intricate way to communicate when two major senses are inaccessible to them. It's so cool to watch, But how do they learn what things like "I'm going to do ___" mean when they can't see or hear what they mean?

[brie]

I can’t imagine how hard it is to learn sign without being able to see OR hear what the signs mean, I have all of my senses and I struggle

[TheAxeh]

ngl I looked this up because I saw a video of a baby that's deafblind and I was curious to how they'd grow to communicate and learn in any way ...this is something so much more than I hoped for and is just humans being wonderful.

[nalartv]

I can't imagine to live without sound and light, these people are strongest

[hopefitzwater]

Great video! I'm legally blind. I'm not deaf or hard of hearing but I wanted to learn ASL and this is how I'm learning. It's so much better for me to do it this way then to try and guess the vissual sign.

[sarahhartley]

Came by this video because of my racing 2am thoughts and questions and I am absolutely NOT disappointed. These individuals amaze me. They are coming up with a whole new way to perceive the world and build relationships. They are going to make the world so much brighter and (I hope) a little bit easier for the future deafblind generations to follow them by further evolving this language. The human mind amazes me sometimes. ESPECIALLY theirs! Us humans are social beings with a thirst for knowledge and relationships and nothing will stop us from gaining this! These guys prove that ❤️

[rubikfan]

This realy shows the adaptebility of menkind

[honorlawson]

I wonder how they managed to cope through this pandemic without being able to touch!? Crazy thought!

[SWTobito]

I honestly can't wrap my hesd around how deafblind people can relate their sign language to reality using only touch.
For example deaf people can still have visual indicators of an object and the associated hand sign. Like a person can point at an object before making a hand sign to indicate one relates to the other.
But using only touch, teaching someone that the object they just felt relates to the hand sign they felt immediately after must be incredibly difficult.
Fascinating.

[clarab]

I’ve always wondered how deaf-blind people could interact with others, this is so interesting!

[iwonthesitatebitch.]

i’m so stoned i’ve watched this video lol 3 times

[lindaosberg-braun]

I work for an immigration office, and we have a client using that tecnique. I was fascinated with this new pro-tactile languaje.

[MayaAshAnimation]

I couldn't imagine learning prepositions and adverbs like these extraordinary people

[dollsNcats]

This is super cool and interesting to me ! I’m not deaf or blind but love asl and this is just amazing to me

[catmom]

I've always had admiration for various adaptations humans make to work around disabilities. I know a little ASL & have worked with kids in our deaf school & loved it!

[dominicwilliamson]

Short. Quick. Informative. Gets right to the point. 👍

[pongop]

This is amazing. I'm just today learning about Protactile. I wonder how communicating with Protactile influences one's interactions, experiences, and perspectives, with communication, relationships, and life. Touch is a necessity and you're literally connected to others when you communicate. It's beautiful.

[yottoo.]

Extremely amazing. Thank you for sharing this video.