Cued Speech Transliteration: Effects of Speaking Rate and Lag Time on Production Accuracy

Many deaf and hard-of-hearing children rely on interpreters to access classroom communication. Although the exact level of access provided by interpreters in these settings is unknown, it is likely to depend heavily on interpreter accuracy (portion of message correctly produced by the interpreter) and the factors that govern interpreter accuracy. In this study, the accuracy of 12 Cued Speech (CS) transliterators with varying degrees of experience was examined at three different speaking rates (slow, normal, fast). Accuracy was measured with a high-resolution, objective metric in order to facilitate quantitative analyses of the effect of each factor on accuracy. Results showed that speaking rate had a large negative effect on accuracy, caused primarily by an increase in omitted cues, whereas the effect of lag time on accuracy, also negative, was quite small and explained just 3% of the variance. Increased experience level was generally associated with increased accuracy; however, high levels of experience did not guarantee high levels of accuracy. Finally, the overall accuracy of the 12 transliterators, 54% on average across all three factors, was low enough to raise serious concerns about the quality of CS transliteration services that (at least some) children receive in educational settings.