Sutton SignWriting is a writing system for sign languages

Summary

Sutton originally created SignWriting in Denmark in the fall of 1974, at the request of professor Lars von der Lieth and others on his research team in the Audiology Research Group at the University of Copenhagen.[10] Sutton was asked to work on a research project, transcribing the gestures made by Danish hearing and Deaf people while they speak or sign. The project, part of a dissertation by Jan Enggaard Pedersen, showed that Danish Sign Language was a rich language, while the gestures of hearing people were unconnected with language.[11] Sutton's experience transcribing Danish sign language inspired her to work with Deaf people worldwide, helping them to write their own sign languages. She named the new writing system “SignWriting”.[12] SignWriting has since been used to write the sign languages of 40 countries.[1] However, it is not clear how widespread its use is in each country. Between 1986 and 1994 Sutton worked with a software developer to create "SignWriter", a word processor for SignWriting which runs on MS-DOS computers. SignWriter included an integrated sign dictionary, and support for multiple languages and countries.[13] In 1996, Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), discovered SignWriter and introduced it to his colleagues, beginning Brazil's institutional use of SignWriting.[14] In 2001, at the annual meeting of Brazil's National Association of the Deaf (FENEIS), the association voted to accept SignWriting as the preferred method of transcribing Brazilian Sign Language into a written form. The association strongly recommended to the Brazilian government that SignWriting be taught in all Deaf schools. In 2003, SignWriting was used in a Brazilian Sign Language dictionary containing more than 9,500 signs, which was published by the University of São Paulo.[15] SignWriting is used in 18 Federal Universities and 12 public schools in Brazil.[16] In Germany, it is taught to deaf adults...