SW Literature Editing Committee

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
January 11, 2007

On Jan 11, 2007, at 8:06 AM, Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa wrote:
> Maybe SLCB can write to them and ask if we can do the same thing for
> NISL and ISL - but we will wait for you to translate the books into
> ASL first and see how it turns out :-) Keep up the good work! Shane x

Hello Shane, Cherie, Steve and Everyone!

Because I personally live near Dr. Seuss's wife, and because I have  
met her and spoke with her about this, I was able to arrange for this  
contract. It is a real contract, which I have to sign, and which is  
limited. Dr. Seuss's works are very carefully controlled.

We are not allowed to sell anything. The permission is for a free PDF  
document posted on the web, for American Sign Language only. I do not  
know the entire details yet, regarding using the illustrations, for  
example.

It may take another year, before we have a document ready for posting  
on the web. Cherie has already done around half the book (thank you,  
Cherie!), and all those pages have been posted to the SignWriting  
List using SignText email. You can find them in the SW List Archives.  
Without the wonderful SignText program, this would not be possible... 
(thank you, Steve!)...

Once Cherie has completed the first draft of the entire book using  
SignText (no rush, Cherie), which is a lot of work, then we need to  
make sure that Deaf people who use ASL as their primary language feel  
the translation is clear... I would like to suggest that we setup a  
SW ASL Literature-Editing committee (for other Sign Languages too  
later)...obviously they will need to be skilled in SignWriting as  
well as ASL in this case...I think, now that we are creating more  
literature, we will need the editing committee, to make sure they can  
read the document and understand it..That is what our DAC used to  
be...the editing committee for dictionaries etc...I think it will be  
a great thing that will be positive for all writers and readers...

Then, I have to add some more symbols to the IMWA, because there are  
some rare mime-like symbols that are needed to show the weird cat  
doing some weird things!

Then, I have to submit two copies of the PDF document, printed for  
them, to the Seuss Enterprises for final approval, and then if we are  
lucky, we will be granted final permission to post the document...

Once we have the ASL version posted on the web, I will have to re- 
negotiate another contract to do the same for other signed languages,  
and I will be happy to do that, Shane...

But right now, Shane, I would suggest that your writing teams in  
Europe choose documents that do not require permission...like fairy  
tales, like Cinderella or Goldilocks...that do not require contracts  
from lawyers!

No matter what, THANK YOU, to all of you, for making all this  
possible - SignText has changed our lives....we have full chapters of  
the Bible in SignText now too...John, Chapter 1 and John Chapter 14  
are now complete...I receive SignText email with documents daily now...

Val ;-)