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From:  Valerie Sutton Date:  Wed Dec 2, 1998  2:42 pm Subject:  Re: QUESTIONS REGARDING SIGN WRITING

QUESTION > 3) Does SignWriting still face continuing controversy, ridicule, >stigma, >etc even today? From what sources, usually? (i.e., Deaf people/leaders, >hearing people, administrators of deaf schools, etc). What is(are) the most >common argument(s) against SignWriting? ANSWER Yes. But things are changing now. People are much more positive than before. Here is some history behind the controversy: SignWriting was controversial from the moment it was introduced in 1974. Historically, new ideas that create "social change" are always met with resistance in the beginning, and SignWriting is no exception. Back in 1974, people were still getting used to the idea that signed languages were real languages, and that idea was a major social change too. Believe it or not, there were Deaf people who did not believe their native signed language was a real language, and they resisted that idea in the beginning too. They had been taught that their own language was inferior, so it took them time to adjust to the fact that they could be proud of their own language now. And reading and writing it was just one more thing, piled on top of all the changes in thinking, and it was overwhelming for them. And then there is the issue of the school systems, and the arguments and theories that abound in the field of Deaf education. We have all heard about the "war between the oralists and manualists". SignWriting certainly has nothing to do with that "war", but many people were wary of any new idea in Deaf education, because they were steeped in controversay between oralism and Sign Language already. Obvisouly SignWriting is only useful if a person chooses to use a signed language. And then there is the issue of hearing people "fiddling" with the language and "changing it". A lot of people assumed that SignWriting was a new form of "SEE SIGNS". They were skeptical that a hearing person might respect and want to preserve American Sign Language and other signed languages. The fact that SignWriting can record any human movement, of course, makes it possible to record any kind of signing, but the DAC, the organization behind SignWriting, chooses to write true signed languages, such as American Sign Language, Danish Sign Language and others. So it is not SEE SIGNS - but that accusation happened fairly frequently. People who made the accusation had never learned SignWriting - they just assumed that. Although the controversy continues from people who have never learned SignWriting, in the past few years, the tide began to change toward more open-minded thinking. This is partly because SignWriting "hung in there" and continued for 25 years, and through time it improved, as more and more people used the writing system. But there is another reason that the controversy became less extreme. People became "ready" to read and write their own language. It took 25 years for them to get used to ASL and other signed languages as "true languages", and once that idea became established, the need for writing the language became greater. The invention of SignWriting is at times compared to the invention of the written alphabet for the Cherokee Indian language. The Cherokee Indian chief Sequoyah, who invented the written form for his native spoken language, was also surrounded by controversy for 25 years. His own people burned his books and threatened his life. They actually put him on trial for being a witch, but then he taught the jurors at the trial how to read and write (I am not kidding, that is the story!) and they decided it was pretty terrific!! So instead of executing him, they decided to use Sequoyah's alphabet, and now the Cherokee Indian language is preserved for future generations. Most written forms are not used by a whole society for centuries. English was very slow to be written, and it is only in recent centuries that everyone learns to read and write English. What are some of the comments people make, who are against SignWriting? Here are a few: 1. signed languages are not "meant" to be written 2. hearing people will think I am stupid 3. Deaf people will become isolated and never learn to read and write English 4. you have no right to write our language if you are a hearing person 5. if I learn it, no one else can read it, so why bother? 6. I had trouble enough learning to read and write English, why should I learn something new now? 7. isn't it another form of SEE SIGNS? 8. are you trying to "save" the Deaf? 9. English gloss works very well, thank you! We don't need those funny symbols! 10. I refuse to learn SignWriting unless other Deaf people back it first QUESTION > 4) What do you usually say in response to their argument(s) against >SignWriting? ANSWER: All new ideas take time. No one is asking you to use SignWriting. But others like to use it, so that is their choice. All languages deserve to be preserved, and I personally love to write signs. No, it is not SEE Signs, we are trying to write the best ASL we know how. No I don't want to save the Deaf - I have enough problems saving myself! No - English glosses are definitely not accurate. There are multiple signs for each English word - so which sign are you choosing when you place an English word on the page? It is wrong to try to write one language with another - if I wrote Danish grammar with English words, the Danes would kill me - ha! If you don't take a risk with learning something new, how do you expect the human race to improve? Deaf people can't back something, if they have never heard of it before. So as more and more people try to write signs, and as it is introduced in the schools, more and more Deaf people will back it. It is a natural process. Valerie :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton at the DAC Deaf Action Committee for SW SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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