| Chapter
3: SignWriting
Early Years in USA
1975 - 1980
The years 1975 - 1980 were
transition years. Focus
slowly shifted from DanceWriting
to SignWriting. From 1975
to 1985, DanceWriting was
a requirement for graduation
at the Boston Conservatory
of Music, in the Dance Department.
Valerie Sutton was on the
Conservatory's faculty from
1975 to 1979. Then, in 1979,
Sutton became a 6-month
consultant to the National
Technical Institute for
the Deaf (NTID), in Rochester,
New York, working with Dr.
Frank Caccamise and his
team on a series of booklets
called "The Technical
Signs Manuals", which
used symbols from SignWriting
for illustrations. These
books continue to be published
today.
The early years in Boston
were important ones. In
1977, Judy Shepard-Kegl was a graduate student in linguistics
at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT). Judy
was open-minded to the idea
of writing signs, and arranged
for the first SignWriting
workshop in the United States,
to the New England Sign
Language Society (NESLS),
held at MIT. The group,
which consisted of signed
language linguists from
MIT, Northeastern University,
Brandeis, University of
Massachusetts and Boston
University, was "a
spirited group", and
the ensuing debate brought
up important issues. That
first workshop influenced
the system for the better.
1977 was a year filled with
"first experiences".
The National Theater of
the Deaf was the first group
of Deaf adults to learn
SignWriting, and Sutton
presented her first paper
on SignWriting to the National
Symposium on Sign Language
Research and Teaching in
Chicago. During her presentation,
Sutton invited Dr. Stokoe
to talk to the group as
well.
The early years were also
filled with experiments.
One day, Sutton received
permission from a school
in Manchester, New Hampshire,
to visit one class of Deaf
students for one hour. There,
Sutton wrote the sign for
"hello" on the
blackboard in SignWriting.
The students guessed it
immediately. They became
quite excited when they
found they could read basic
signs in a matter of minutes.
They jumped up and started
writing signs themselves
on the blackboard. Then
other students would try
to guess what they wrote...and
they guessed correctly!
These kids were all skilled
in signing, but did not
necessarily know how to
read English well. It was
an inspiring experience
that has since been repeated
with other classes and other
teachers.
Below is a listing of the
events and publications
during the early years...
Spring 1976
American Manual Alphabet
in SignWriting
Illustrated by Jayne Gunderson.
No longer in print.
Spring, 1977
First SignWriting Workshop
in USA, at MIT in Boston.
A group of Sign Language linguists
from the New England Sign
Language Society learned SignWriting.
The workshop was held at MIT,
arranged by Dr. Judy Shepard-Kegl,
then a linguistics graduate
student at MIT. (Years later,
Judy and her husband James,
established schools
for the Deaf in Nicaragua,
using SignWriting to teach
deaf children to read and
write.)
Summer, 1977
SignWriting Workshop, National
Theatre of the Deaf
Troupe of Deaf actors learned
to read and write signs for
one week with Valerie Sutton
in Connecticut. This was the
first time the system was
introduced to Deaf adults
in the USA.
Summer, 1977
Goldilocks And The Three Bears,
First Edition
Written in SignWriting by
Betty Beekman, from the National
Theater of the Deaf. Two other
versions have been written.
Second
Edition. Third Edition.
Summer, 1977
Sutton Movement Shorthand;
Writing Tool For Research
First paper on SignWriting
presented in the USA by Valerie
Sutton, in Chicago, Illinois
to the National Symposium
on Sign Language Research
& Teaching.
July, 1978
SignWriting, Sutton Movement
Shorthand, The Sign Language
Key, Key 5
First SignWriting textbook,
with 8-hours of video and
audio instruction. It is an
historic record of how the
system was written in the
1970's. No longer in print.
Fall, 1979
NTID Technical Signs Manuals
Begin
SignWriting symbols are used
in a series of Technical Signs
Manuals, produced at NTID
in Rochester, New York, under
the direction of Dr. Frank
Caccamise. In 1979, Valerie
Sutton was a full-time consultant
to the project for six months,
and is the author of the second
manual, which teaches the
SignWriting symbols. Over
10 manuals have since been
published. The movement symbols
of SignWriting are blended
with life-like illustrations,
showing technical signs used
in different professions.
Fall, 1979
Sutton Speech Writing
This booklet described and
illustrated Sutton's attempts
at writing the detailed movements
of the mouth, jaw and tongue
while speaking. It was written
while Sutton was a consultant
at NTID. Audiologists and
speech pathologists at NTID
stimulated the project. Sutton
analyzed detailed videos of
speech production, and developed
a system for notating the
movements (see example below).
Indirectly this was an influence
on SignWriting, since some
movements of the mouth are
recorded when writing signed
languages. This booklet is
no longer in print.
October 26, 1980
A Way To Analyze American
Sign Language & Any
Other Sign Language Without
Translation Into Any Spoken
Language
Paper presented by Valerie
Sutton to the National Symposium
on Sign Language Research
and Teaching in Boston,
Massachusetts.
|
