The robotic arm, built by Johnson, a bioengineering graduate student at Northeastern, is designed to produce tactile sign language in order to enable more independence for people who, are both deaf and blind. Lard is one of the members of the deaf-blind community that is helping Johnson test the robot and giving her feedback on how it could be improved.
People who are deaf can communicate with their hearing friends and family through visually signed language, but for people who are both deaf and blind, language must be something they can touch. So that means that people who are both deaf and blind often need an interpreter to be present with them in person for interactions with others who do not know American Sign Language, so they can feel what shape their hands are making.