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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Sun Dec 13, 1998 4:30 pm Subject: Re: why deaf people didn't learn signwrite? | |
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On Thu, 3 Dec 1998, Francis Bezellain wrote: >Val: >You mean you started this signwriting 25 years ago? How long did this >signwriting get generated? I mean how did you get other people to know about >this signwriting project when you started? _________________________ December 13, 1998 Hi Francis and thanks for the above question. Sorry it has taken me so long to answer it! Yes, SignWriting began in the Fall, 1974. And our organization started in February, 1974...so 1999 is a "25th anniversary year" for us. What should we do to celebrate our 25th? :-) In regards to the history behind SignWriting... When I first started SignWriting, I was at the University of Copenhagen working with sign language researchers there. They never want a way to write Danish Sign Language that children could read...they only wanted to record certain signs for their research. So I went to my boss and asked "Why not use SignWriting to truly have a written form for signed languages?" and he thought that was a silly idea. So I realized I was "alone" in the struggle. So SignWriting was used for research from 1974-1979. And then a big change occurred. I was hired to be a consultant at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, NTID, in 1979, to work with Dr. Frank Caccamise on a series of books called the Technical Signs Manuals. They are still being published after 19 years! SignWriting movement symbols are blended with life-like drawings. So that was the first official backing of SignWriting in the United States. But 1981 was the beginning of Deaf participation. I hired a team of Deaf native ASL signers, and we published the first newspaper in history to be written in ASL and English...we also had articles in other signed languages too. We then sent the newspaper free to 11,000 people, most of whom had never heard of this before. I am told a lot of people threw out the newspaper! There were others who wrote in SignWriting immediately and sent us letters written in signs without any training from us - they simply read the newspaper and figured the symbols out. And through that experience SignWriting improved and changed for the better. Here are some history pages to read: SignWriting History Directory https://www.SignWriting.org/sw140.html History Introduction Sutton Movement Writing https://www.SignWriting.org/hist001.html 1. 1966-1974 DanceWriting Begins Precursor to SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org/hist002.html 2. 1974-1978 SignWriting Begins In Denmark The Early Years https://www.SignWriting.org/hist003.html 3. 1975-1980 SignWriting Begins In USA MIT, NTD, NSSLRT, NTID https://www.SignWriting.org/hist004.html 4. 1981-1984 SignWriter Newspaper Native Signers Begin Writing https://www.SignWriting.org/hist005.html 5. 1981-1989 SignWriting Publications Published in USA https://www.SignWriting.org/hist006.html 6. 1990-1997 SignWriting Publications Published in USA https://www.SignWriting.org/hist007.html 7. 1974-1998 How SignWriting Has Changed The Evolution of Writing Styles https://www.SignWriting.org/hist008.html ______________________ 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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