Introduction of Denny Voreck

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
August 5, 2013

Hello Denny!
Welcome to the SignWriting List. It is great to be in contact with you again.

For those on the SignWriting List who may not realize, back in the late 1980's and throughout the 1990's we had an active Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting. DAC members came to my home, usually on Wednesday nights, after working at Salk Institute or other places, and we would sit in my living room and discuss how to write signs. Denny did a lot of his DAC work at home on his computer, using SignWriter DOS. Thank you, Denny, for your contribution to the SignWriting dictionary in SignWriter DOS.

And Denny also was a part of our Deaf Perspectives on SignWriting Video Series. He interviewed a Deaf Signwriter from Saudi Arabia…you can read the transcriptions of the interviews on these web pages:

Denny Voreck 1994
http://signwriting.org/deaf/deaf004.html

Denny Voreck Interviews
Abdul Aziz Al-Obaid of Saudi Arabia
http://signwriting.org/deaf/deaf005.html

The above interview can be viewed in ASL on YouTube, towards the end of this long video:
Deaf Perspective on SignWriting, Video 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjqgvDMvReQ&feature=share&list=TLi-OPlG7qSr0

Anyway - Denny - I share your dream about SignWriting becoming established in the school system in the US, as do most people on this List. SignWriting was taught for 5 years in the Albuquerque Public School System in the early 2000s, at Hodgin Elementary School…under the direction of researcher Dr. Cecilia Flood:

Hodgin Elementary School SignWriting project
http://www.signwriting.org/usa/newmexico/albuquerque/albuqu.html

And it is used to teach ASL to High School students in Arizona - and since you live in Arizona, perhaps you would like to be in touch with the teacher - Natasha Escalada-Westland? 

Natasha's web site Westland ASL (http://www.westlandasl.com/) is used by her high school students at Catalina Magnet High School in Tucson. Natasha teaches ASL using SignWriting, and has done so for many years.

Hope you and Natasha can meet someday -

Val ;-)

----------



On Aug 5, 2013, at 5:41 PM, Denny C Voreck <dvoreck at AOL.COM> wrote:

> Hello Fellows!
> 
> I had been working with Valerie Sutton in Sign Writing project in early 1990's for several years.  It is good to back on the bandwagon once again!  My vision was that several deaf school or special deaf ed. programs implemented sign writing system as a pilot program to see if this system is working for DHH pupils effectively or not.  I haven't heard any deaf school in America absorbed this system so my vision is still same now.
> 
> Cheers,
> Denny Voreck, M. Ed.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/sw-l/attachments/20130805/49b1e28d/attachment.htm>