There are more than a hundred sign languages worldwide. Almost half of thesls people who sign can hear perfectly well and for most of them it is a second language. They and the deaf people for whom spoken languages are unheard of share unique cultures and languages.

All these cultures and languages have the same issues as oral languages; they rely on the passing of knowledge from person to person, from generation to generation. The best way to preserve the language and culture is by making more permanent records, by writing things down by recording video.

I am happy to have interviewed Steve Slevinski; Steve has been responsible for much of the development that brings sign languages to computers and the Internet. One of the ambitions of the SignWriting community is to have their own Wikipedias. Steve is the man who is making this a reality.

Gerard Meijssen
Internationalization / Localization outreach consultant

Unicode technology enables SignWriting

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