Parking on a Hill

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
February 21, 2003

Dear Siv, Penny, Mark and Everyone -

Thank you, Siv, for sharing this report with us. I am really amazed at 
the amount of projects you are doing, and so many include 
SignWriting...and on CD too ...It appears that everyone is starting to 
publish on CD...Thank you for doing such an excellent job. I think of 
you often - and guess what? Patrick Matthews, the Deaf teacher from 
Ireland who visited me at the same time you did last summer...Patrick 
just sent me a wonderful package of materials that use SignWriting in 
Ireland - So it seems you both have been very busy...;-)

Remember how I gave you SignWriter 5.0 on the Mac, so you can convert 
your signs to better-looking graphics? Well I have an improved version 
of SignWriter 5.0 in Mac OS X now, so when you are ready to enter signs 
into SignBank, I would suggest that you type your signs in SignWriter 
DOS, and then using one of GS-Media's Macintoshes, open SignWriter 5.0 
and convert your DOS files to SignWriter 5.0. All of your DOS 
SignWriting symbols will look beautiful, and you can from there do 
different kinds of high res graphics with them...I can send you the 
updated SignWriter 5.0 as soon as I know you have a Mac OS X computer 
to work on...

And Mark...you know the symbols in SignBank and SymbolBank? Remember 
you said they look better than SignWriter DOS symbols? Those symbols 
are actually SignWriter 5.0 symbols which I typed in SignWriter and 
then copied them into SymbolBank...so as soon as SignWriter 5.0 is 
funded, all of your DOS files can be automatically converted to the 
better looking symbols. It can be done right now, on Mac OS X, so if 
there is a programmer out there who is interested in programming in 
Java, on Mac OS X, write to me and let's talk!

Val ;-)

------------------------



On Friday, February 21, 2003, at 01:54 AM, GS-Media wrote:

> Dear Valerie
>
> Thanks a lot for your quick answer about diagonally orientated
> handshapes - it has helped us a lot.
>
> We are doing great here in Z
> ürich in GS-Media. We will try to keep you
> and the others in the SignWriting list updated what happen in Zürich.
> Below is a short update, for anyone who might be interested:
>
> In fall, we finished our first attempts to notate signed stories with
> the publication of 'Noahand the Ark' and 'David and Goliath' both as
> videotapes (with the original signed story) and as illustrated books
> with the SignWriting notation. Both Valerie and Stefan Woehrmann were
> invaluable helps in these books!!! We are in the process of getting
> information in English about these books up on our internet homepage, 
> so
> those of you who are interested can  - soon  - have look there.  We'll
> let the List know when this English language information is posted at 
> www.gs-media.ch
>
> Last fall we began working on another project to make teaching 
> materials
> for our first two SignWriting workshops. There were 17 participants,
> half deaf sign language teachers and half hearing interpreters. 
> Everyone
> was amazed about SignWriting and its unique possibilities to write down
> signs. So we have a first positive reaction from the deaf community, 
> and
> some deaf people have already asked me when the next workshop comes. 
> For
> this workshop, we used a German translation of Valerie's book, plus a
> small CD we made to practice the SW symbols for basic handshapes.
> Several of the participants in this workshop were so eager for more,
> that they have volunteered to work with me once a month to discuss the
> spelling of Swiss German signs.
>
> All of these SW notations will be added to our larger FileMaker lexical
> database of over 6000 Swiss German signs.
>
> Now we are also working on a project for developing materials for a CD
> for the students taking the first level sign language course given by
> the Swiss German Deaf Association.  The Deaf Association decided that
> SignWriting will be put in the CD, along with sign illustrations and
> movies. So all persons taking sign language courses will soon be
> learning about SignWriting.
>
> Unfortunately, I just work one day a week with SignWriting, so it takes
> some time to make all these SignWriting materials for all these
> projects.
>
> Next fall, we hope to integrate SignBank into our existing lexical
> databank. We are looking forward to doing it and trying out this
> fascinating program which will finally give us a real possibility to
> compare different sign languages.
>
> Again, many many thanks for the your help, Valerie.
>
> Greetings to all from Siv, Penny and the whole GS-Media team
>

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 4747 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/sw-l/attachments/20030221/289391a9/attachment.bin>