[Sw-l] SignWriter Newspaper

Wed Nov 10 12:54:32 UTC 2021

Hi Val! Very Good!

Hugs! Alex - Brazil

Em 10/11/2021 02:13, Valerie Sutton escreveu:

> SignWriting List
> November 9, 2021
> 
> Hello Honza, and everyone -
> 
> Here is a PDF of one article written in Danish Sign Language, American 
> Sign Language, English and Danish, from the SignWriter Newspaper:
> 
> https://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs13/sw1246_SignWriter_Newspaper_Danish_&_American_Sign%20Language_1982-1983.pdf
> 
> The rest of the newspapers I will need to take photos of each page for 
> you - it will be good to do this to preserve the pages -
> 
> Tomorrow is another day - talk to you tomorrow -
> 
> Thank you for your messages!!
> 
> Val ;-)
> 
> -------------
> 
> On Nov 9, 2021, at 8:02 AM, Valerie Sutton <sutton at SIGNWRITING.ORG> 
> wrote:
> 
> SignWriting List
> November 9, 2021
> 
> Hello SW List members, and Honza from the Czech Republic!
> 
> Great to hear from you, Honza. I am so happy to hear of your courses 
> that include SignWriting at the Czech University. And thank you for 
> remembering the historic SignWriter Newspaper, which was our first 
> official presentation of SignWriting to the world.
> 
> SignWriter Newspaper, 1981-1984
> https://www.signwriting.org/library/history/hist005.html
> https://www.signwriting.org/archive/docs2/sw0141-Deaf-Perspectives-2.pdf
> 
> 11,000 copies of the tabloid-size newspaper were distributed to 
> organizations and educational groups and schools in several countries, 
> four times a year - it was a quarterly, written by hand with ink pens. 
> We also used transfer sheets with wax symbols on boards, and I have the 
> pasted boards here in my home. Everyone got the same newspaper, in all 
> countries, so there were not special versions for any one country.
> 
> And it all was a grand experiment...to see if readers were 
> interested...and to also work with wonderful Deaf journalists who had 
> never even thought about writing their sign language before, but I 
> asked them to try, and they did a great job! The newspaper was in 
> written ASL and also some Danish Sign Language articles too. It is 
> because of the SignWriter Newspaper, that SignWriting was taught in the 
> Danish School System from 1982 to 1988. I bravely mailed SignWriter 
> Newspapers to Danish signers in 1982, and they asked me to return to 
> Denmark to teach their teachers and researchers. It was a great honor 
> to see Danish Deaf children writing and reading Danish Sign Language.
> 
> Other projects were stimulated by the SignWriter Newspaper around the 
> world. But there was also much debate. None of us were sure what 
> version of SignWriting would be used more...Did sign language readers 
> want to read a stick-figure writing system? Or did they want to only 
> read the handshapes and facial expressions and movement symbols without 
> the stick figure? Denmark, at that time, chose to keep the stick 
> figure, but others, like writers of ASL, chose to drop the stick 
> figure.
> 
> At the end of the publication in 1984, our Deaf ASL staff who wrote the 
> newspaper made their decision... They demanded to change to writing in 
> vertical columns, and to write EXPRESSIVE only. Of course, I agreed and 
> we stopped publishing the newspaper to try to find a way to re-write 
> all the books to be vertical and Expressive, plus we needed a way to 
> type SignWriting so badly. Writing by hand had become exhausting.
> 
> And so we thank Richard Gleaves for developing SignWriter, a sign 
> language processor for typing SignWriting, in 1986. SignWriter (the 
> computer program) saved us!
> 
> SignWriter Computer Program
> https://www.signwriting.org/forums/software/sw44/index.html
> 
> Now, to answer your questions -
> 
> 1. Were all copies written by hand? And how did we make copies that 
> were distributed?
> 
> The original boards were all written by hand. It was written on paper 
> with an ink pen and then we pasted the handwritten inked paper onto 
> boards, tabloid size. We pasted each page like a piece of artwork onto 
> boards with photos and we hired a graphics team to give us big headline 
> type. In 1981-1984 the personal computer was not used, instead we used 
> a typesetting machine at a graphics studio to give us the big type and 
> then we pasted it all together.
> 
> Then once the boards for a 20-page tabloid newspaper were all pasted, 
> photos were taken of each board - I remember the graphics artist going 
> into a dark room to develop the photos - and then we had negatives of 
> every page as it should look. Then a printing company near where I 
> lived in Irvine, California, donated the printing of 11,000 copies, and 
> they donated the printing costs every three months for 4 years - pretty 
> amazing!
> 
> The printing company also donated the time to help us put address 
> labels on the newspapers for distribution, and then our non-profit 
> organization raised the money to pay for the postage to so many amazing 
> places. I hope we sent to the Czech Republic. I cannot remember ;-)
> 
> 2. I do have something more, but I need to go out this morning to an 
> event. I hope this afternoon I can take photos of some of the original 
> boards, plus I do have some computerized reductions somewhere! I will 
> search for them later today -
> 
> Thanks for listening to me about the history of the SignWriter 
> Newspaper. It was a major research project, outside of academic 
> institutions.
> 
> I believe that sign languages can truly provide reading experiences for 
> signers. What I loved about the newspaper was, even though it was new, 
> with so many different ideas of how to write, we got postal mail, sent 
> back to us, written in SignWriting from strangers who never met us or 
> knew about SignWriting before receiving the SignWriter Newspaper in the 
> mail. People wrote to us in SignWriting! And it was usually stick 
> figures receptively facing the reader, and yet those penpal letters, 
> from people all over the world, kept coming! It shows that is was easy 
> enough to figure out, and it was astonishing how readable their penpal 
> letters were...
> 
> I will take photos of the boards later today -
> 
> Have a wonderful day -
> 
> Val ;-)
> 
> Valerie Sutton
> sutton at signwiting.org
> 
> ------------
> 
> On Nov 9, 2021, at 4:15 AM, Honza <honza at RUCE.CZ> wrote:
> 
> Hello Val and others!
> 
> I teach SignWriting at Czech university for years, recently I started 
> to teach SL interpreters too and I teach them about SW history as well.
> Now it is 40 years, SignWriter Newspaper appeared. It is clear, that it 
> was written by hand, but did you make all copies, you distributed 
> abroad by hand as well, or was there any way how to make copies?
> I realized, that I don`t know more details and there are only few small 
> pictures I can show to the students. Do you have something more?
> 
> Thank you
> Honza
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Valerie Sutton
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sutton at signwriting.org

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