Dactyls

The Dactyls app aims to raise awareness and promote the Dactyls communication system for people with deafblindness, especially among deafblind individuals themselves, their close circle, and professionals who work with this community.

The ultimate goal is the standardized and consistent learning and use of this system, which has been established and agreed upon by the deafblind users.

It is a tactile communication system, meaning it serves to send and receive information through touch. Starting with spelling out part of the message using the tactile fingerspelling alphabet and following the structure of spoken language, it incorporates tactile signs to convey words, groups of words, or expressions from spoken language.
The signs are adapted to facilitate tactile perception by the deafblind person and are primarily made on the palm of the hand, although they can also be made on other parts of the arm and body. Many of the signs are taken from sign language (adapted for tactile perception), while others are newly created.

The combined use of the tactile fingerspelling alphabet, tactile signs, and other resources specific to the system is governed by grammatical rules that regulate its operation and use.

The name Dactyls comes from combining the first four letters of the word "Dactylológico" (DACT), the letter "Y," and the acronym for Sign Language (SL).
The use of the Dactyls system improves communication for deafblind individuals who use the fingerspelling alphabet, as it allows for faster message transmission, the reception of more information in less time, and the ability to receive contextualized information from the environment in parallel with the spoken message. All of this enables deafblind individuals to form a representation of the communicative situation as immediately and completely as possible, allowing them to act accordingly.

This is a powerful resource for improving connectivity and access to information for people with deafblindness who cannot receive messages audibly or through lip reading.

It contains videos of all the signs that make up the system, with front and side views, the option to play both in slow motion, and all in different playback qualities. It also includes all the necessary information for learning each sign, as well as a visual description. The material is completed with documentation on the system's operation and how to learn it.

The Dactyls application was developed by the ONCE's Technical Directorate for Deafblindness Care, the ONCE's Center for Assistive Technology and Innovation (CTI), and the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).