The vlogging phenomena: a deaf perspective

Abstract

Highly textual websites present barriers to Deaf people, primarily using American Sign Language for communication. Deaf people have been posting ASL content in form of vlogs to YouTube and specialized websites such as Deafvideo.TV. This paper presents some of the first insights into the use of vlogging technology and techniques among the Deaf community. The findings suggest that there are differences between YouTube and Deafvideo.TV due to differences between mainstream and specialized sites. Vlogging technology seems to influence use of styles that are not found or are used differently in face-to-face communications. Examples include the alteration of vloggers' signing space to convey different meanings on screen.