"American Sign Language (ASL)" means a language in and of itself, different from the English language: It has its own word order and syntax.
"Auxiliary Aids" include but are not limited to amplifiers or amplified phones, decoders or flashing lights which can indicate a phone or doorbell ringing or the presence of smoke or fire; Baby Crying (a monitor which picks up the sound of a baby's cry), closed caption devices for televisions, hearing aids and flash cards.
"Deaf" means the absence of the ability to hear and understand speech or monitor one's own speech production with or without a hearing aid.
"Department Statewide 504 Coordinator" means the employee in the Office of Affirmative Action responsible for coordinating Department compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
"Hard of Hearing" is a description for a person who has sufficient hearing, with or without hearing aids, to understand the speech of others and monitor his own speech, even though he has a hearing loss.
"Illinois Relay Center (IRC)," also known as "Dual Party Relay," is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week service which provides a communications link between those who use a Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) and those who use a standard voice telephone. IRC provides relay service through a program by the Illinois Telecommunications Access Corp. (ITAC), the local phone company, and AT&T.
"Interpreter" means a person who facilitates communication through sign language or other visual means for persons who are deaf or persons who have a partial or severe hearing loss. A person who translates sign language or other means of visual communication into spoken English for persons who are hearing impaired.
"Lip reading" or "speech reading" means watching a person's mouth and face to read what words are being said. Research indicates that only about 3 out of every 10 words can be speech read easily.
"Manually coded English" (or "signed English") means signs that represent English words in English word order.
"Perlingual Deafness" means deafness which occurs before the acquisition of language (usually before 3 years of age). Such a person will have no language frame of reference for English when learning to speak, write, or speech read.
"Primary language" means the language which the client normally uses in day-to-day activities.
"Postlingual Deafness" means deafness which occurs after the acquisition of language (usually after 3 years of age). In most cases, persons who have lost their hearing after this age have a relatively strong language base.
"Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID)" means a national organization that has established an evaluation and certification mechanism for sign language and oral interpreters. A certificate signifies that an interpreter has attained a minimum skill level. A registry of certified Interpreters is published annually by the RID, and is recommended as a way of verifying current certification status.
"Telecommunication Device for Deaf" (TDD) means a special typewriter-style device that enables the telephone conversation to be typed rather than spoken. A deaf person can communicate directly with anyone who has a similar device.