[sw-l] ENC: Brazil SW NewsLetter

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
May 27, 2005

Sergio wrote:
Since November 2003 we have a brazillian discution group
(http://br.groups.yahoo.com/group/escrita_sinais/
actualy we are 48 participants, we are deafs and hearings and I am
creater and moderater of group.


Val answered...
Does your group have any contact with the groups in Pelotas and Porto
Alegre? and in Sao Paulo? I can see I need to update our web site
area about Brazil! I will add your photos and your information...

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

Our web site is quite out of date, because there is so much happening
all the time!


> Now I producing Brazil SW NewsLetter especific to signer or LIBRAS
> user. Brazil SW NewsLetter will writing in signwriting, and now I
> am preparing the first edition. I wanna talking about SignWriting
> history, I have this information, by I wanna talking signwriting
> use actualy, how many countries and how many user groups in the
> world. Have you news informations about ? Is 27 countries most
> recent number ? Do you know how many deafs use signwriting
> actualy ? How about USA signwriting use today ?

Val answered...
I was hoping to go through my email soon, to see what countries have
told me of projects...I believe it is more like 30 signed languages,
and 28 countries...Belgium has two different signed languages
(Flemish Sign Language and Walloon Sign Language....the sign language
used in the area of Belgium that speaks a French dialect called
Walloon)...So I need to clean this up a little...Here are two web areas:

Who Uses SignWriting? (listed by country)
http://www.SignWriting.org/about/who

SignPuddle Online Dictionaries (listed by Sign Language)
http://www.SignBank.org/signpuddle

So I would say 30 signed languages in 28 countries...

The USA is just one of those 28 countries. Within the USA, there are
several projects. The SignWriting Literacy Project started  in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, but there are other groups and individuals
in the US that use SignWriting...for example, in Iowa the Pass-It-On-
Services organization is founded and directed by two Deaf people:
Stuart Thiessen and Philippe Galant...

I do not know how many people use SignWriting, because it is free on
the internet. We have around 3000 unique visitors to our web sites
daily, and some stay on our web sites for hours at a time...And the
software is downloaded continually...so we have guessed, counting the
projects in different countries, that there are thousands that use
SignWriting...maybe 8,000 to 10,000 people...judging by the visiting
of our web sites...within a one-week period. But this is not a
scientific count!

New people do not tell me when they are using SignWriting so I cannot
give you an accurate number of users ;-)

You can just say that small groups of people in 28 countries are
using SignWriting and that because it is free on the internet, it
spreads without us knowing the exact number of users...

Everyday I receive email from individuals all over the world, and
when complete strangers tell me that they have been using SignWriting
for several years, I find it amazing myself....

Hope this helps!

Val ;-)



Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

1. SignWritingSite
http://www.SignWriting.org
Read & Write Sign Languages

2. SignBankSite
http://www.SignBank.org
Sign Language Dictionaries

3. DanceWritingSite
http://www.DanceWriting.org
Read & Write Dance

4. MovementWritingSite
http://www.MovementWriting.org
Read & Write Movement & Gesture

5. SymbolBank On The Web
www.MovementWriting.org/symbolbank
Archive For All Symbols

Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting
Center For Sutton Movement Writing
an educational nonprofit organization
Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA
tel: 858-456-0098....fax: 858-456-0020
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