The term Auditory Environmental Stimuli (AES) refers to sounds that are not spoken language (e.g., someone tapping a pencil, a dog barking, or a dropped book) that can be conveyed in cued language transliteration.

Application in Transliteration

Purpose

The relevance of a particular sound to a deaf or hard of hearing person varies by individual and according to the situation. 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.

Techniques

There are three main ways to represent AES. These techniques were first devised by Language Matters and are taught in detail in the CLT Professional Education Series 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)