“Hand Talk” refers to two distinct things: the historic sign language used by Native American tribes across the Great Plains, and a modern translation app that converts text and audio into sign language using 3D avatars. Both share a name rooted in the same idea, using hands to bridge communication gaps, but they come from very different worlds.
Hand Talk as Plains Indian Sign Language
Long before European contact, dozens of Native American tribes across the Great Plains spoke mutually unintelligible languages. To trade, negotiate, and share stories across these language barriers, a signed lingua franca evolved. Known as Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), or simply Hand Talk, it allowed individuals from completely different linguistic backgrounds to communicate fluently using hand gestures, body movement, and spatial references.
Hand Talk wasn’t limited to the Plains. It spread as far as British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, functioning alongside spoken pidgins and trade languages as one of several systems groups used to communicate across tribal lines. Nomadic groups of the Great Plains used it most extensively, both as an alternative to spoken language and as a primary tool for intertribal communication.
How Hand Talk Differs From ASL
Hand Talk has its own grammar and structure, separate from American Sign Language. Linguists have identified 9 basic handshapes that can be rounded or unrounded, producing 18 distinct handshapes total. These combine with directions, referents, motions, and dynamics to form a complete visual language. Some of the structural rules governing how two hands work together in Hand Talk parallel constraints later documented in ASL, but the languages developed independently.
One of the most striking differences is how each language represents time. In ASL, the past is positioned behind the signer and the future in front. In Hand Talk as used in the Great Basin region, the past sits to the left and the future to the right. Plains and Uto-Aztecan nations reverse this, placing the past on the right and the future on the left. These spatial conventions even carried over into visual records. Lakota winter counts, for example, read right-to-left, reflecting the same directional logic used in signing.
How Many People Still Use It
Hand Talk has not disappeared, but it is severely endangered. The exact number of fluent signers is unknown. Researchers and conference participants have reported that roughly one hundred or more Native Americans across the U.S. and Canada still know and use the language to varying degrees of proficiency. That number is imprecise because no comprehensive census of signers has been conducted, and fluency levels range widely.
Preservation efforts exist but remain small. William Tomkins’ 1926 book, “Universal American Indian Sign Language,” has been the definitive teaching guide for nearly a century and is now in the public domain. Wyoming Humanities hosts digital resources including a poster of the hand signs from Tomkins’ book, and TravelStorysGPS offers a Plains Indian Sign Language audio tour with video content available on YouTube. No major university currently offers a full course in PISL, making self-study and community transmission the primary ways the language survives.
The Hand Talk Translation App
Completely unrelated to the indigenous language, Hand Talk is also a Brazilian technology company that built an app translating text and audio into sign language. The app uses artificial intelligence to power two 3D animated avatars, Hugo and Maya, who perform the translations visually. It supports American Sign Language (ASL) and Brazilian Sign Language (Libras).
The app has been downloaded over 5 million times on Google Play alone, with more than 66,000 reviews. Hand Talk grew partly through its 2019 acquisition of ProDeaf, a research group focused on Portuguese-to-Libras translation, which brought deeper linguistic expertise into the platform.
Hand Talk’s Website Accessibility Plugin
Beyond the mobile app, Hand Talk offers a plugin that organizations can embed on their websites to improve accessibility. The plugin goes well beyond sign language translation, bundling several assistive features into four groups.
- AI Assistant: Lets users click any word on a page to see its meaning, synonyms, and contextual examples, helping people with dyslexia, ADHD, limited literacy, or low language proficiency read more independently.
- Font Control: Offers font size scaling up to 200% and specialized typefaces like Open Dyslexic (designed to reduce letter reversal) and Atkinson Hyperlegible (designed for low vision).
- Navigation: Includes a screen reader that reads page text aloud at adjustable speeds, a reading mode that strips ads and distractions, and a reading mask that highlights specific lines to reduce visual fatigue.
- Color Control: Adjusts contrast settings including light and dark modes.
The plugin is designed so users activate features themselves through a button on the page, rather than requiring site owners to rebuild their content. For organizations trying to meet digital accessibility standards, it provides a relatively low-effort integration path.