[Wikipedia-l] sign.wikepedia.org?

Thu Jan 27 22:43:58 UTC 2005

Thanks to everyone for their contributions :-)

1. there are many different subgroups that makes up the deaf community - but
often it’s the national sign language that unites us.

2. there are hundreds of different sign languages around the globe - that’s
why I have asked for sign.wikipedia.org to put them together instead of us
asking for say, bsl.wikipedia.org, asl.wikipedia.org etc etc - it would be a
central point for sign languages - and once we go to sign.wikipedia.org we
can go into subgroups there in whatever group suits - for instance, there
would be a NISL section for Northern Ireland Sign Language community etc.

It can be in any written languages or sign-writing systems - but the main
thing is that we need a central point for the national sign languages to be
in the same category - and it can help us build information up etc.

3. There are 3 "sign-writing" systems out there - Sutton Writing System,
Stokoe Notation System and HamNoSys (Hamburg Notation System) but it is felt
that the Sutton one will become the most popular as its simple to use and
easy to use - whereas Stokoe and Hamnosys are more used by academics (deeper
note-keeping really)

Shane

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wikipedia-l-bounces at Wikimedia.org [mailto:wikipedia-l-
> bounces at Wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Andre Engels
> Sent: 27 January 2005 18:16
> To: wikipedia-l at wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] sign.wikepedia.org?
> 
> Neil:
> > The important question is: what do our potential deaf users _themselves_
> > want? Then we can worry about who's going to find the motivation to
> > adapt the software appropriately to support their needs.
> 
> Not to discourage, but I can well imagine that many deaf users are
> quite happy with what is already there. Sign language is probably
> their first language, but many will have their literacy in the spoken
> language - that's the language they read and write, often on a daily
> basis.
> 
> It's the same with many other speakers of dialects and smaller
> minority languages - the 'big' language is the language of schooling
> and written communication. Smaller languages often remain just oral
> languages - or in the case of sign language, signed languages.
> 
> Of course this is all spoken by someone who does not have any direct
> experience with deaf people, so I gladly admit I'm wrong if someone
> else with more direct experience tells me differently. :-)
> 
> Andre Engels
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