First European SignWriting Symposium

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
July 20, 2005

Dear SignWriting List!
WELCOME Adam, and other newcomers, to the SignWriting List! We are  
very happy to have you with us! I look forward to focusing on your  
message below as soon as I can ;-)

This week is a very special week for SignWriting. The First European  
SignWriting Symposium is being held in Brussels, Belgium tomorrow and  
the next day! And today and yesterday, in Maastricht, Netherlands,  
several SignWriting presentations were offered to a large  
international conference on Deaf Education...

Today, I am testing the videophone setup in Brussels, with Daniel  
Noelpp, who is bringing a new videophone with him, to Brussels, from  
Switzerland, where he lives. Daniel and I tested my videophone  
yesterday with success...we connected between my videophone in San  
Diego, to his in Switzerland! What a miracle! And today we are  
testing the one in Brussels, so that tomorrow, when the Symposium  
begins, I can say welcome! and hello! to the 36 SignWriting users who  
are congregating there...Very exciting time!

Videophones just might hurt the airplane industry, if we can really  
see each other so clearly, without leaving our homes!

The Europeans are ahead of ASL users in the US, when it comes to  
holding SignWriting Symposiums! I would like to suggest that those  
who love SignWriting in the US and Canada, and who know ASL or  
related dialects, should band together now in a similar way to the  
Europeans. I like the idea of the NAD conference in New Orleans in  
2006...why not start an organizing committee of SignWriting users to  
setup the First ASL SignWriting Sympoisum in New Orleans in 2006?  
Right after the NAD conference concludes?...smile...

Val ;-)

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




On Jul 20, 2005, at 8:04 AM, skoreapv83 at fuse.net wrote:

To the list:

My name is Adam Paul Valerius, & I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio, United  
States. I have mostly normal hearing & vision, but I communicate most  
comfortably when using tactile signing like the Deaf-Blind use. I've  
been fluent in Signed English for 8 1/2 years & fluent in ASL for 4  
years. Please DON'T mention family because I don't one due to having  
been abused & neglected as a child & for the first 4 years of  
adulthood (almost; I'm NOT yet 22). I learned sign in the first place  
because I have extreme difficulty expressing myself verbally (using  
words). I speak w/the same type of speech impediment as the Deaf &  
Deaf-Blind who are able to speak. Also, knowing sign helps ME equally  
as much as other signers. My visual & tactile systems work well  
together, so I know sign both visually & tactilely. If I lose my  
visual memory, I'll still remember sign language because it's still  
in my tactile memory, which I can't lose without getting some kind of  
seriously debilitating disease or dying.

I joined this list cuz I really like the idea of SignWriting.  
SignWriting on a tactile mobile device would really help me. I'll  
NEVER write English again once that technology is available. I  
understand some people may feel uncomfortable with it, but the courts  
in the United States insist on writing everything down to keep  
records of everything said, done, & ordered. If SignWriting became  
widely used in the United States, & mobile devices could translate  
between SW & English, no interpreters would be necessary. Also, no  
signers would have to learn English, either, which would enable  
physically Deaf & physically Deaf-Blind signers to remain independent  
when telecommunicating WITHOUT knowing how to write English words in  
a syntax that resembles their signing.

I saw what some others said about "mainstream non-signers taking over  
ASL". I DON'T believe the mainstream non-signers would take over ASL.  
It's already a worldwide language with thousands of dialects anyway,  
so how could they do more than just make their own written dialect,  
just like they already have their own signed dialect?

Deaf people already know the difference between the way they sign ASL  
& the way a hearing person signs it. That difference in dialect is  
all I could think of that hearing people would do to it.

Whatever y'all do, please DON'T express any anger towards me. In  
Cincinnati, I seem to be the only person out of 740,000 people who is  
smart, gentle, & emotionally stable. EVERYONE else seems to LOVE  
aggression, irritability, & ignorance.

I probably am developing sensorineural Deaf-Blindness cuz I had  
surgery 4 years ago to correct a brain malformation I was born with.  
I just haven't been to the neurologist yet. I've been misdiagnosed  
with several mental illnesses & developmental disabilties for my  
whole life due to emotional extremes resulting from others' refusal  
to meet my communication needs.

Later,

Adam Paul Valerius