The term Auditory Environmental Stimuli (AES) refers to sounds other than spoken discourse (e.g., someone tapping a pencil, a dog barking, or a dropped book).

Implications to Consumers of Transliteration Services

These sounds may or may not be relevant to a deaf individual. For example, to a deaf consumer who is allergic, the buzzing of a nearby bee may be relevant (if not essential) information. Cued language transliterators provide access to AES in order to allow deaf consumers to filter out or act upon this information as they choose.

AES Techniques

There are three main ways to represent AES. These techniques were first devised by Language Matters and are taught in detail in the CLTPES courses. They are:

• onomatopoeia (e.g., buzz, meow, squish, thump)
• phonemic representation (e.g., /b-b-b-b-b/, /vvvvvvvv/)
• or a combination of onomatpoeia and phonemic representation (e.g., buzzzzzzzzzz)