Questions about the use of SW

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
June 12, 2003

Hello Everyone, and Anne-Claude!
Thank you for your message below, Anne-Claude. Yes, you are correct we 
do not have a special section on each of the 27 countries on my web 
site, but that does not mean they don't exist - so the fault is my web 
site...smile...

A classic example is Malta...The Maltese Sign Language Dictionary 
project is not on the web yet, so no one would know about it...which is 
a shame because it is such an important project! I promised the Maltese 
project to post a web page about their wonderful work...and I most 
definitely will....When I released SignWriter Java, it took a little 
time to get it posted and to communicate with programmers 
behind-the-scenes, but well worth it too! And I know you are waiting 
for your Swiss-French Fingerspelling Keyboard too...so both your 
projects in French-Switzerland, and the Maltese project, are two 
examples of projects not mentioned on the web yet...

What are the 27 countries?

Arabic-Nations, Belgium-French, Belgium-Flemish, Bolivia, Brazil, 
Canada, Colombia, Denmark, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, 
Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, 
Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland-French, 
Switzerland-German, South Africa, Sweden, USA

I have a feeling I have left a few countries out...so let me revise 
that list later...notice in the above list I considered the 
Belgium-Flemish Sign Language to be different than the Belgium-French 
Sign Language - those are not really two different countries, but they 
are two different signed languages - but even if you put them into one 
country we still have more than 27 listed above...

Now...just because there are groups using SignWriting in those 
countries, it does not mean that every country has a program using 
SignWriting for Deaf children in a school system...no... that is 
rare...only a few countries are teaching SignWriting in the 
schools...most countries have research groups using it, and are 
therefore working with adults, not children...

The most important countries working with Deaf children right now are 
the US, Germany, Nicaragua and possibly Brazil...I am not sure what is 
happening in Brazil right now, but in the past Marianne Stumpf and 
others did teach Deaf children in schools...

I would strongly suggest that you communicate with teacher Stefan 
Woehrmann, who is on the List all the time, and he is teaching teachers 
how to teach children SignWriting, and he receives guests from other 
countries - recently he had teachers from Sweden visit his classrooms 
in Germany - so you have a source in Europe to turn to...

Here in the USA, Dr. Cecilia Flood and her team of teachers in 
Albuquerque are the pioneers - Cecilia is on a vacation right now, but 
when she gets back, she told me she wants to post some of her students 
SignWriting documents on the new Children to Children web site designed 
by Jerry Spillman and Tini Pel in Canada -

And did you know, Anne-Claude, that Penny, Siv and the Swiss-German 
project are preparing materials in Zurich, so that Siv can teach 
SignWriting in a school for deaf children in the Fall, in Switzerland? 
So your own country will be pioneering in the schools too!

For information about SignWriting in the schools...what we have on the 
web right now:

SignWriting Teacher's Forum
http://www.SignWriting.org/forums/teachers/teachers.html

SignWriting in Albuquerque
http://www.SignWriting.org/usa/usa.html

SignWriting in Brazil
http://www.SignWriting.org/brazil/brazil.html

SignWriting in Germany
http://www.SignWriting.org/germany/germany.html

SignWriting in Nicaragua
http://www.SignWriting.org/nicaragua/nicaragua.html

Val ;-)

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On Thursday, June 12, 2003, at 05:21 AM, Marc Girod / Anne-Claude 
Prélaz wrote:
> In one of your message (april 30th) regarding parent's use of SW... you
> said SW is used in 27 countries... but when I looked in SW's site... I
> counted only 23!! South Africa, Germany, England, Arabic nations, 
> Bolivia, Brazil, Canada,
> Colombia, Danemark, Spain, United states, Finland, France, Greece,
> Netherlands, Irlande, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norv íˇ ia, P 
> }° u
> and Switzerland.Are there other counttries that are not mentionned ont 
> the web site ??
> If so can you tell me about it!Could you telle me which of these 
> countries do use SW in school with
> deaf children? (or can you tell me where to find this information)Many 
> thanks in advance!!
> A-Claude Pr }_ az Girod
>