| SignWriting List Archive 1 October 1997 - May 1998 |
February 11, 1998
MESSAGE TO THE SIGNWRITING EMAIL LIST
SUBJECT: Annual Membership Meeting
Hello Everyone -
As I write to you, I look out at a beautiful canyon. The wildlife
is wonderful. Small squirrels and rabbits with little white tails
scamper in front of my window. And I have the good fortune to
have a computer, so we can communicate. I feel very fortunate
:-)
I am writing to report news from the DAC. We have had a busy time lately. Our Annual Membership & Board Meeting was held on February 8th in my new home. It was fun showing everyone our new office!
Twenty people attended. The board meeting was held first. Then Darline Clark and Dave Gunsauls (who are getting married in July :-) gave a short presentation about our accomplishments in 1997, and our plans for 1998. Angela Jones, from Network Interpreting Services, interpreted.
Darline, who is the author of our ASL Children's Stories Series,
began by showing the group Goldilocks, Humpty Dumpty and Cinderella.
Just as Darline opened the books, their daughter Tiffany, who
is a year and eight months old, grabbed the books and started
reading them! We all laughed and it was a great moment to remember
:-) Dave then explained that he is the new editor of our SignWriter
Newsletter online. Dave's first issue will be posted on our SignWritingSite
in Spring, 1998. Dave will write all his newsletters in ASL in
SignWriting, from a Deaf perspective.
I then summarized our plans for the SignWriting Literacy Project.
I showed the group two studies on Sign Language literacy. The
first was published in Denmark in 1985, which I hope to translate
from Danish into English. Two of our board members, Anne Ulrichs
Goldman and Margit Bojstrup-Kesner, are Danish-Americans, and
they will hopefully act as my editors on the translation :-)
The second and most recent study is a master's degree thesis
by Janice Gangel-Vasquez, completed Winter 1997. This new study
will be posted on our SignWritingSite in the future. Although
it is only a short study, it is important for the history of
SignWriting. Literacy levels of Deaf children in Nicaragua were
studied and the results point to success in reading signs. Quoting
from the thesis: "The test results support the hypothesis
that even beginning signers can be taught to recognize written
sign. Further, there is evidence that achievement of sign literacy
may open the door to literacy in an oral language." We had
hoped that Janice herself could present this to the group, but
the long drive from Los Angeles in the rain did not make it possible.
Janice and I hope to work together in the future to summarize
the results for educators.
After the meeting adjourned, I gave an informal demonstration
of our new computer program, SignWriter 5.0 in Java, programmed
by Rich Kadel from DTAI. The program is not completed yet, but
we discussed the new features we are planning, including pull-down
menus written in ASL or any signed language. Instead of the menus
using English words to say "File, New, Open, Save, Quit"
and so forth, we will be able to place the equivalent signs in
place of the words. It was fun to see the ASL signs for Cut,
Copy and Paste in the menus!
All in all it was a great meeting. Wish you all could have been
with us!
All good wishes -
Valerie :-)
DAC@SignWriting.org