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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Tue Jun 8, 1999 3:25 am Subject: International Menus | |
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>I think it would be best to use the international symbols. >Why? If someone learns the program and then wants to use a >different country, they don't have to learn a new interface. >Therese Shellabarger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi Therese - Thanks for your input. I am glad to know your opinion. We have now decided to be flexible and give people a choice between the international symbols, or different languages - so the user will be able to set up SignWriter as they choose. You are correct about the positive sides to international icons - it does make it easier to explore typing other signed languages. To give you an example, in our old MS-DOS program, you can "switch to France", and all the words on the screen become French and the keyboard acts like a French keyboard. That is fine if you know French, but sometimes people who do not know French are curious and switch to France to see what it looks like. Later they call me saying "Help! I can't leave the French section of SignWriter!" I explain that the French keyboard places the letter "Q" in another place on the keyboard, so they couldn't "Quit" the program, because they couldn't find the letter Q! With SignWriter 5.0's new interface, a person could switch over to the international symbols when they lose the ability to navigate inside a foreign language. Meanwhile, I think giving teachers the choice of switching languages is important too - International icons do not encourage learning to read signs, but the "Menus in Signs" is a great way to teach the reading of SignWriting...and the "Menus in Words" is a great way to teach the reading of a spoken language. Valerie :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org The DAC, Deaf Action Committee for SW Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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