Free ASL Computer Technology Resources?

AceCaseOR asks: "I work in the computer lab at a community college. In the past I've worked with students who are deaf or mute, and, as I didn't know American Sign Language, I've had to resort to using pen and paper, with occasional gesture. As right now my mother is learning American Sign language, I'm learning some myself. I'm looking for free resources on computer terminology for American Sign Language. Any assistance that can be offered would be appreciated."

One more time...

[fm6]

There's this thing called Google [google.com]...

Turn in your Geek License

[WasteOfAmmo]

There's this thing called Google Search Help [google.ca] also. If the reader follows your link they will get a page of search results containing little or nothing that the author is asking for. A few of the links are little more then collections of links and advertising. Others contain nothing useful if you want to *learn* ASL.

Now pay attention class, using a simple Google search you can find usefull items that the author can use, like: http://www.42explore.com/signlang.htm [42explore.com] and http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/guid [uoregon.edu]

Re:Turn in your Geek License

[fm6]

The guy asked for "free resources on computer terminology for American Sign Language". Nothing about resources for learning ASL. Though that's a pretty simple Google too.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Turn in your Geek License

[Conor]

I don't know that tag , does that work a bit like ? ;-)

Free ASL Computer Technology Resources?

[Surye]

Free ASL Computer Technology Resources?

AIM [aim.com]?

Re:Free ASL Computer Technology Resources?

[Randolpho]

Other people might not get it, but I do!

A/S/L?

Re:Free ASL Computer Technology Resources?

[CaptainCheese]

yeah,that's how I read it first time around.

Asking /. for a new way for teens to ask "Wanna cyber?"

Re:Free ASL Computer Technology Resources?

[webhat]

It's actually quite sad that I knew exactly what he meant to... Must be hanging out in #teens too much. ;)

Re:Free ASL Computer Technology Resources?

[awtbfb]

As funny as the parent is trying to be, this is actually one of the primary methods of communication for the deaf nowadays. This became very apparent when Danger released the Hiptop (aka T-Mobile Sidekick) with the ability to keep an IM session open pretty much constantly. The cheap data-only plan from T-Mobile helped too. There are also internet relay options that interface with IM and at least one video relay service that works with video enabled AIM/iChat.

The deaf and hard of hearing circles I move in

I know some

[numbski]

I began learning ASL many years ago in church. I haven't looked online, so I can't help you there, but I can give you some basic pointers.

DO NOT learn the alphabet in order. Learn by hand shapes instead. I made this mistake. If you learn them in order, your fingerspelling will suffer horrendously, and this is a big, big deal doing tech work, as there are no signs (at least last I used it) for most technical jargon, so you'll be relying on fingerspelling often.

What I mean by this is for example the letters A, T, N, M, and S. I typed them in that order due to hand-shape. E and O have similar shapings, as do R and Q.

Another is the cardinal sin of those learning ASL: NEVER sign 'is', as in the letter I, held to your mouth and then move it away. That's sign-english, and will drive bonkers a deaf person who speak ASL. :P I should know, I had enough people teaching me that went nuts.

Now, for a little side-story:

There was a girl that I liked, A LOT, when I was in high school. She was very cute, and her mother was deaf, so she and her mother helped teach the class.

One of the exercises was to sign "Hello, my name is ___, I am happy to meet you."

The sign goes as thus:

Hello (wave hello)
my (right hand placed against chest)
name (letter N draped over opposite arm)
(fingerspell your name here)
-----
I (point to yourself)
happy (open hand, pat chest)
meet (more on this in a moment)
you (point to the person you're speaking to)

Now, above you'll notice I didn't define "meet". Well, I was bad the previous week, and didn't attend, so I read up in a book how to do the signs, and of course I paired up with cute girl in question.

The problem with the drawing in the book is that they weren't that great. What I saw for "meet" was the sign for the letter K on both hands, and draw them together. The letter K is pointer and middle fingers pointed out, the rest of your fingers bent, and your thumb pointed forward, resting naturally between the pointer and middle fingers.

Well, the mother of this girl was standing there, and about the time I signed "meet", her eyes went wide and looked wild and almost angry.

"What??? What did I do wrong??" She and her daughter started dying laughing....

They finally explained that people usually "meet" standing up.

Those weren't letter K's, they were supposed to be representative of people...

Re:I know some

[JM Apocalypse]

Sign language has a lot of intracacies like that:

The signs for date, meet, and f--- are amazingly similar. But the sign in question is actually done with two V-handshapes (not K's, although they are nearly identical).

Whoops.

ASL

[skull]

Here is a place you might find useful.

http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/

Help from RIT soon

[KevinIsOwn]

RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) has the NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf) which is the largest tech school for the deaf in the nation. From what I have seen in the school newspaper, there is a researcher here who has patented some ASL learning process that helps people learn ASL. (It's a very popular thing to learn at RIT)

I can't find any resources on it right now, it may not be released. I would check NTID's homepage [rit.edu] often for more information. (Not to mention the NTID page has lo

Re:Help from RIT soon

[zerkon]

Taking a few courses there helped me a lot... of course they were taken for the sole purpose of picking up deaf chicks, who seem to be the only hot girls on that stupid campus

but certainly, try your local community college, see if they offer an ASL 101 course

These sites are good starting points...

[Dark Coder]

http://www.signingonline.com/ [signingonline.com]

http://www.kisa.ca/asl.html [www.kisa.ca]

http://www.masterstech-home.com/ASLDict.html [masterstech-home.com]

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.ht m [msu.edu]

http://wings.avkids.com/Book/Signing/ [avkids.com]

Other estoteric ASL signs are:
http://deafmissions.com/dic/ADRSindex.html (religious) [deafmissions.com]

Errrr, if you really wanna know..

[Creepy Crawler]

23/Of course!/Here.

How abouts you? Wanna cyber?