All of the time in the tapes is devoted, not to theory, but to practicing words, sentences, and stories which can be repeated many times. Furthermore, they are presented in natural speech, using dozens of actors and actresses. We attempted to use every type of facial characteristic we could find: old and young, clean shaven and with moustaches, thin lipped and thick lipped, fast speakers and slow speakers, smilers and frowners, overbites and even-jawed. We filmed in the living room and in the kitchen, up close and far away, in the park and in the car, in the school and in the restaurant, in the doctor's office and at the zoo. We attempted to select subjects which could easily be encountered in everyday conversation.
We wish to thank those who participated in pilot studies for their valuable input and observations, which helped us arrive at our approach to filming and material selection.
The rationale that was used in the selection of people and material was this: If we found that the tenth time through the exercise the tape was as interesting as the first time, to the majority of the users, we kept it in.
If we found that by the tenth time through it was boring and tedious to sit through, and the challenge was gone, we removed it.
If we found that the information in the tape was that which the speechreader could relate to, whether hard of hearing or deaf, teenager or adult, we left it in.
If we found the information was beyond the experience of a particular group, it was removed.
Here are some of the questions we faced:
1. Should we use faces without sound and sign language or should one or both be used?
2. Would two people per segment be too few? Would using more people lend itself to associating the material with who said it? 3. Should we begin with a great variety of faces, perhaps risking discouragement because it appears speechreading is too difficult?
4. Should we present few faces on the initial tape, thereby risking making speechreading too easy?
5. What distance should we use for close upshots? How far away should we film distance shots?
6. Should we present how all of the sounds are formed and revealed on the lips? Would it be wonderful the first time through, and boring thereafter?
7. How many accents should appear on the tapes? Should we use the basic English approach found on television, or should we use the people who speak in accents representing various parts of the country?
8. How much of the tapes should be face forward? Angle? Profile?
9. How many items should we use per segment?
10. How much dramatic movement should we elicit from the actors, which would facilitate speechreading, but would also make memorization easier?
11. And certainly, but not finally, how far should we go in finding unusual faces, the thick lipped, the thin lipped, the mustached, the older face, the younger face, the over-bite, the braces, etc., etc.?
For each of these hurdles, and numerous others, we applied our rationale and went forward with a program that is fun, interesting, and rewarding, no matter how many times it's viewed.
