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From:
Ronice M Quadros Date: Mon Sep 14, 1998 12:42 pm Subject: Re: I visited DAC headquarters this summer | |
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Hello Mark! I was reading your e-mail and it seems that I was relived the time that I spent with Valerie Sutton at DAC last June. I agree with each word that you wrote. Valerie and her work have a lot of energy. Also, it shows us how the system is a really way to write signs. SW works (it works because she believed in it)!!!! Ronice Quadros -- On Mon, 14 Sep 1998 10:45:49 Mark Penner wrote: >Here's a short report of my impressions that I wrote this summer after >visiting DAC. Now that I'm back in Japan, back on e-mail, and back on the >SW list, I thought I'd pass it on to the list for what its worth. > >In just 9 hours at the DAC office with Valerie my head was reeling. It's >been a couple of days since then, I've managed to sort out some of what I >picked up there. > >1)Valerie Sutton = Intensity. Power. Conviction. Commitment. A deep zest >for life. She is simply an amazing person. Whatever it takes to make >SignWriting work, or, I should say, work better (it already works very >well!), she will do. > >2) She is surrounded by a great group of supporters. One by one, top Deaf >and hearing SL researchers are coming to see the value of the movement >writing system she invented. > >3) I could have spent the whole time just on her web site and still not >have seen it all--what a resource! > >4) I'm praying for an early release of SignWriter 5.0. I got to see it, and >it is so much easier to learn and use (though I did manage to write a >sentence in the DOS-based SignWriter, and I know I could learn that >too--its just harder after you've gotten used to Windows-style working). > >5) The philosophy behind the system is solid. Movement Writing records any >kind of movement, and has been used for everything from dance to karate to >medical assessments. But SignWriting is far more that just a record of >movement. Valerie recognized Sign Language (Danish SL first, and later >ASL) right away as a true language, and from the beginning of her >SignWriting development, worked with the Deaf community to make it useful >for them. She and her Deaf teammates at DAC have spent years determining >what movement information is necessary to record and what is extraneous. > >6) She is sensitive to the issue of natural usage. When I saw my first >page of SignWriting in columns, my eye instinctively went to the right side >of the page. Japanese, Chinese--any top-down writing I've ever read is read >this way. She picked up on that right away. "I'll have to get the >programmers to add a right-to-left option" To my protest that we could >learn easily enough to read it the other way, she said "We have Arabic >SignWriters too." Whatever it takes! > >7) I picked up a little bit of helpful information on how to teach >SignWriting. It won't help me much if there's no one who can read the >Japanese Sign Language I write or write to me to help me learn to read. :-) > >I'm part of a team of people (mostly Deaf) working to translate the Bible >into Japanese Sign Language on video. Written Japanese just doesn't cut it >for recording translation decisions, and it is awkward for cueing the >signers as they sign in front of the camera. SignWriting seems like a great >way to solve these problems. Who knows? Maybe someday we'll have a printed >SignWriting version of the JSL Bible > >Mark Penner > >*************************************** >I rode with him >in a taxi once >Only for a mile and a half >seemed like it took a couple of months. > >Bob Dylan, _Lenny Bruce_ >*************************************** >Mark Penner >Tokyo, Japan > |
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