SignWriting History Article for SigNews

[Deaf Action Committee]

SignWriting History Article
for SigNews, June 2004 Issue

....continued...

The first Deaf journalists on the Newspaper staff were the pioneers.
They were the first group of Deaf adults to become skilled at writing
their native signed language. At that time, it was a controversial idea
to "try to write signs", and all who worked on the Newspaper staff
experienced resistance to this concept, from both Deaf and hearing
people. New ideas take time for acceptance, something the staff had no
choice but to learn the hard way. But there were many strong supporters
of SignWriting too. The Newspaper was a catalyst for debating the issue
of Sign Language Literacy. It also stimulated the development of the
SignWriter Computer Program, because writing each issue with ink pens
was slow and tedious!

Below...
In 1981, there was no way to type SignWriting. Each issue of the
SignWriter Newspaper was written by hand with ink pens....


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