“Eye Movements for Deaf Individuals in JSL/Japanese Bilingual Message Reading”

Presentation of bilingual messages with Japanese sign language (JSL) and Japanese for deaf people at emergency situations is one of important issues in designing emergency messaging systems. In this paper, we discuss characteristics for eye movements and fixations in reading for three deaf individuals. The results for these analyses show interesting reading behaviours of deaf individuals. When two message areas overlap every subject pays attention on this area. When two message areas are separated, deaf individual pays mainly gaze upon a specific message area. Results for analyses also show variation in message reading behaviour. In the last part of the paper, we point out issues to be considered thoroughly in designing an effective bilingual message system.