common criticisms of signwriting?

Tue Nov 24 16:48:38 UTC 2009

Hey there Valerie, have you considered pulling in some examples in the ISWA from some of the languages other than ASL so that we see examples of usage?  

I have a handshape used in Jewish worship, the extended finger oval shape that is used to hold the kaddish cup.  I'm not sure which puddle to put it into, as it's not exactly Israeli or English, but special religious usage.

Charles Butler

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From: Valerie Sutton <sutton at signwriting.org>
To: SignWriting List <sw-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu>
Sent: Tue, November 24, 2009 11:20:30 AM
Subject: Re: [sw-l] common criticisms of signwriting?

SignWriting List
November 24, 2009

On Nov 24, 2009, at 4:41 AM, Trevor Jenkins wrote:
> Our post Post-Modern society could well see a total decline in textuality; we've already seen the reduction of much intelligent discourse in politics, etc as Postman suggested.Pessemistic I know but I fear this result is the conclusion. How this will affect D/deaf people with their general literacy skills and their specific need of sign language notations remains to be seen. I am not hopeful.

Hi Trevor -
I am just the opposite....very optimistic!

The thing to realize is that trends change. Every other generation, it seems, Deaf children are born into a different world in the deaf education trends...first schools are oral, then they move to manualism, then they move back to oralism, then they move back to sign language education...it seems to fluctuate frequently...but throughout... Deaf people are resilient and survive and move forward with their lives....and each time the trend changes, some things are different than before, and there are subtle improvements, even though it may be hard to see those improvements...

In other words, it is true that reading and writing and even intelligent discourse is all changing...texting is not the same as writing a book on an old typewriter from the 1920's, but people are still intelligent and invent new ways to feel fulfilled and to grow...

So do not dispair...the most important thing is to remain optimistic and choose to find new avenues for communication...that is why I work with SignWriting and I do not throw out the visual nature of the writing system, just because it does not fit the norms of computer programs today...because sign languages are visual in nature, and to lose capturing the language as it really is would be a shame...That is why I feel we need to work towards new goals that will expand our computing and thinking in new ways...

Anyway...I hope we can move on now, to a new thread as well... How about a new thread:  "Common Inspiring Stories from SignWriting users"....

Here is an inspiring story:

One thing I am working on today is to create the Group 7 Handshape pages...for Adam's animated GIFs...as you know, Adam has been working on a big project, while he goes to school full time at CSUN...

Here are Adam's animated GIFs to date...but tonight I hope to post Group 7...Yeah! Thank you, Adam, for this wonderful work...

Lessons in ISWA Symbols
http://www.signwriting.org/lessons/iswa/

As soon as we have Groups 1-10 in animated GIFs, I am going to co-author a book with Adam called "SignWriting Hand Symbols"...that uses Adam's photos to show each handshape in 6 palm facings...so all the hands of the ISWA will be documented...on the web, and in book form...and I am thinking we could also create short videos for YouTube too...using the animated GIFs...a great way to teach SignWriting...

THANK YOU, Adam!

And thanks to you too Trevor, and to all of you, for continuing to be interested and to use SignWriting...Do you have any inspiring stories to share?

Val ;-)

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