SignWriting List
April 29, 2010

Hello Kim and everyone...
Great to hear from you again. I am glad you like Ed's video reading a verse from the Gospel According to John. It is really remarkable how well he read that passage...and he claimed he didn't know SignWriting in depth, but he read very well!

The Gospel According to John in ASL:
http://www.signwriting.org/library/bible/Gospel_John.html

And Pastor Ron Dettloff has also videotaped others in his Deaf congregation reading Scripture in ASL from SignWriting documents that Ron and his team wrote for their Sunday and weekly Bible studies...we are waiting for permission from those who were videotaped, to post their videos too...

There are some short passages of the Koran written in SignWriting now, in the Saudi Arabian SignPuddle, but I don't believe there are any Jewish documents yet...that would be great if you know anyone interested in doing the translation and writing into ASL...

Regarding the Avatar...can you take the time to test it for Kate? Here is the link...

Test the Avatar
http://www.cs.uwc.ac.za/~kmoemedi/index.php?phaseno=1&pageno=1

and I hope others can do this too -

Just write what you think the Avatar said in ASL and keep going for 10 questions on 10 web pages, and then Kate can use that data to help improve the programming of the Avatar using SignWriting....

Many thanks!

Val ;-)

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On Apr 29, 2010, at 4:48 PM, Kimberley Shaw wrote:

> Hello all:
> sorry to come late to this conversation! I've had limited access to
> email on machines bigger than my phone lately.
> The video on the signwriting.org front page of the guy signing from
> the book of "John" is great! I like it, because I have always wished
> that good ASL renditions of Jewish liturgy were more widely available
> ... but have so far not have had very enthusiastic response from the
> Jewish signing community. Yet. And this fellow is very clear in
> explaining why it is important for Deafs to have written literature in
> signed languages.
> Kudos to him!
> It gives me incentive to keep on with my own projects.
> PS - wherever this "avatar" is, I don't know. Can somebody please explain?
> Best,
> Kim from Boston
> 
> 
> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 3:05 PM, Kate <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Hi Charles!
>> Thank you very much for the feed back.
>> 
>> 1) How do I make the avatar to perform a sign form the start start of each
>> sign. This default position of the avatar is the hands on the waist when it
>> signs it moves from the default position and performs the sign. Should there
>> rather be a pause between the default and the end position? What do you
>> suggest?
>> 2) The orientation is wrong...thanks!
>> 3) I thought its AUD, because the 'V' moves right,left,right.
>> 4)Thanks for the correction, and It was supposed to be RV
>> 
>> 've just double checked the fingerspelling, it turns out its actually
>> Spanish not ASL!
>> Many thanks for the feedback
>> 
>> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 8:12 PM, Charles Butler <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Having worked with avatar programs in Brazil before, I have a few
>>> observations.
>>> 
>>> 1) Avatars may have a default beginning setting, this one seems to have
>>> one, but that default setting is not the start point of each sign.  Each
>>> sign has a beginning and an end.  With this avatar, all signs start at the
>>> waist, not at the natural beginning of each sign.
>>> 
>>> 2) Some orientations seemed to have been viewed backward.  This may be
>>> because of a misunderstanding of avatars and expressive signwriting.  The
>>> one sign I can rememer is understand.  The palm facing is toward the writer,
>>> not away from the writer.  The avatar signs away from the writer.
>>> 
>>> 3) Unsure which fingerspelling system is being used.  A sign that says AUD
>>> is apparently AVD, which may be some other fingerspellings outfit, but not
>>> ASL.
>>> 
>>> 4) The sign translated "ASL" reads as "RV" in ASL, so I'm not sure which
>>> signed language is being produced.
>>> 
>>> Charles
>>> 
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: Kate <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Sent: Wed, April 21, 2010 1:35:48 PM
>>> Subject: Re: Need your help - can you view this video?
>>> 
>>> works very well...
>>> I use Safari!
>>> Kate
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 4:15 PM, Ingvild Roald <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I can see the video clearly
>>>> 
>>>> Ingvild
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:59:40 -0700
>>>>> From: [log in to unmask]
>>>>> Subject: Need your help - can you view this video?
>>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>>> 
>>>>> SignWriting List
>>>>> April 20, 2010
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hello Everyone!
>>>>> 
>>>>> I need your help. Can you view the video from YouTube that I just
>>>>> posted on the front page of our web site?:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Go to:
>>>>> 
>>>>> SignWriting Site
>>>>> http://www.SignWriting.org
>>>>> 
>>>>> This is the first time I have ever embedded a video from YouTube on a
>>>>> web page, and it is in Flash, or SWF I guess...
>>>>> 
>>>>> I have never posted a video in Flash before, and DreamWeaver, the
>>>>> program I use to do web design, keeps telling me that I have to do several
>>>>> things to make it visible on the new Internet Explorer...and I am having
>>>>> problems...it shows up on my Mac, but I am concerned maybe it will not be
>>>>> visible on a PC?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Does anyone use the latest version of Internet Explorer on Windows?
>>>>> Because the Mac no longer uses Internet Explorer and I have no way to test
>>>>> it...
>>>>> 
>>>>> The video is wonderful! A Deaf man, named Ed, from Michigan, who
>>>>> attends the Deaf Church that Pastor Ron Dettloff directs, explains in ASL
>>>>> that he was born Deaf and that he learned a little SignWriting but still
>>>>> needs to learn more, and then he reads out loud in ASL from the book written
>>>>> in SignWriting...He does a great job and it is a good video - Thank you, Ed
>>>>> and Ron, for doing this for us, and giving us permission to post...
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks for your feedback, everyone!
>>>>> 
>>>>> Val ;-)
>>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>