WRITING SOFTWARE FOR THE DEAF

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The overall goal of this effort is to develop an effective software tool for addressing the types of writing problems specific to the deaf population. The Phase I research will focus on the modification of WRITE THIS WAY, a word processing program with the capability of checking spelling and grammar in real-time on Apple II computers. This software, which was developed by the proposing organization for use with English as a Second Language students, can be tailored to provide assistance to the user based on an analysis of common error patterns. Specific tasks for Phase I include the collection and linguistic analysis of 100 writing samples from deaf students in the 4th - 12th grades, modification of spelling- and grammar-help algorithms to assist this population group with selected problems, and classroom trials of the software. In Phase II we will add semantic analysis capabilities to the software to provide additional assistance to the student. In addition, Phase II will expand the software to the Apple IIGS and provide automatic scoring and record-keeping. These changes will be supplemented with a controlled study to evaluate the efficacy of WRITE THIS WAY in improving the writing skills of the deaf. This proposal offers an opportunity to apply a unique technology for real-time natural language parsing to the needs of the deaf; such technologies are usually reserved for "high-end" users, not students.