SignWriting is Bringing
Recognition to the World's Sign Languages

There are millions of people worldwide who communicate daily in a Sign Language.

SignWriting is a way to read, write and type all the different Sign Languages in the world.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) sets the world's standards for the representation of languages in computers.

Computer programmers refer to the ISO 639-2 Registration Authority for the standard codes used to represent the world's languages. This helps standardize software development.

Before February, 2000, Sign Languages were not included in this listing.

In September, 1999, the Deaf Action Committee for SignWriting (the DAC), and the Irish National Body applied to the Registration Authority, requesting that the world's Sign Languages be included. The application was approved in February, 2000!

The Universal Character Set

The Universal Character Set (UCS) is an international standard for representing languages in computers known as ISO/IEC10646, or Unicode. It will take several years to prepare SignWriting for encoding in the UCS.

The project: Encoding SignWriting in the Universal Character Set needs funding.

Encoding SignWriting in the UCS will make it easier for software developers to incorporate SignWriting into their programs. It will facilitate the sharing of Sign Language data between computers and across the internet.

The result? Sign Language users worldwide will have improved and increased communication!