The SignWriting Literature Project

The project develops special software for composing literature in SignWriting.

1. We are working on SignWriting software that will make it possible to create the first Wikipedia written in American Sign Language.

Why is this important? An online encyclopedia in American Sign Language can lead to improved literacy for Deaf people on the web, and inspire them to write their own encyclopedia articles in American Sign Language. Plus it educates Deaf readers to information they may not know. Reading the encyclopedia has never been easy for people struggling with literacy, and this will open the world of encyclopedias to profoundly-deaf signing children and adults.

2. Valerie Sutton will release The International SignWriting Alphabet 2008 (ISWA 2008) under the OFL Font License, providing symbols for writing 40 Sign Languages, including Ethiopian Sign Language.

3. SignPuddle designer and programmer Stephen Slevinski works full time preparing the ISWA 2008 coupled with source code for his SignText and SignMaker programs, to be presented free on SourceForge in April 2008, so that other programmers can incorporate SignWriting into their web sites and computer software. This historic software development will make it easier for the Wikipedia site to post articles in written American Sign Language.

Goal: To provide the world with easy-to-use efficient software that makes it possible to compose Sign Language Literature directly in the movements of Sign Languages, to sort dictionaries by Sign Symbols, to search Sign Language texts and databases for linguistic elements, to be able to print multi-lingual documents, to be able to create web sites written in Sign Language, to be able to compose Wikipedia articles written in Sign Languages directly on the web, providing Deaf people the ability to compose fiction and non-fiction literature directly in their own language, which benefits both hearing and deaf people around the world.

Our two existing programs, SignPuddle™ and SignBank®, are already well on their way to providing these tools, but further software development is needed to complete the task.

Non-Profit Organization

The SignWriting Literature Project is founded by, and sponsored by, the Center for Sutton Movement Writing, a 501c3 educational non-profit organization located in La Jolla, California. The Center was founded by SignWriting inventor Valerie Sutton in 1974, receiving California tax-exempt status in 1976 & Federal exemption in 1978.