How I Write in ASLWrite (spoiler: I type! thanks Bee Olive who made this font)

It might be pretty obvious that to write in ASLWrite that you can do it by hand on a pen and paper. Some of you, who are smarter than me, probably figured out you can use just about any drawing program to also hand write ASLWrite.

When I started doing this I couldn't figure out for the life of me how people were using drawing programs, or what could be possible since I couldn't afford any of the fancy ones.

I eventually figured out I could just take a blank snip or white or black space using the snipping tool on my computer and then use its annotation tool to write what I wanted. Other people's writing was so crisp and clean and professional,almost like it wasn't hand written. What programs were they using to not make it look like drunk stick figures had a frat party and tried to make fake ID's like my words were.

(Later, after my holy grail gave me the ability to understand ASLWrite better, I realized I could use a standard android or iphone notes app to write messages and text them, but that was waaaaaay after I started).

But I really struggled during my handwriting and "how the hell are people digitally drawing these signs" period it was a brain buster to just understand and grasp the basics. Thumb orientation was a wreck, adapting to the direction of motion lines was confusing, and how the heck did you decide which perspective view to use??

This felt like a thick fog of, well I tried to walk a few feet in, I'll walk a few feet out and try another day. And darnit if that few feet of being able to write the word mom and dad didn't get well worn.

My breakthrough came about when a person named Bee Olive dropped an experimental type font into the AslWrite facebook group.

I like to try new things and I'd been thinking how neat it would be to be able to type, since my hands were trash, my digital attempts were nearly illegible, and uploading hand written attempts was too complicated (no I'm not too old for tech, I'm just brain scrambled). Mighten typing solve these problems?

Boy, did it ever. The type font had a learning curve.

First, no one had produced signs in the type font, so figuring how to make the font look like what people were drawing when it was restricted in space, orientation, movement and a set digibet was a hurdle simply because I didn't know if what I wrote was how it might possibly be written.

Second, the most important back bone of the system - spacing and overlap - were not intuitive at all.

We don't build english like that as a rule in regular word processing programs, super script/subscript and fiddling with oral based font types/sizes being the only thing that comes close to it, and that doesn't come close to it.

Third, the keyboard doesn't map by letters. This is by design, and works really well for the typeset, but remembering all the keys and what keys going together make what was a challenge.

To figure this out, with no tutorials but the pdf file explaining it (your bible, should you so decide to take up the typing) I had to hammer at it over and over. I took the few words I was already good at hand writing and tried to type them. I got brave and posted to the group for feedback. It was pretty quiet and I didn't get a lot, but I got some. I hacked at it, I made worksheets for myself, and then I started giving myself writing games or prompts.

Write a sentence. Write three signs with the "5" handshape. Make a math worksheet. Here is a clock face.

These games forced me to do two things:

1. practice all the components in the type font
2. get really good at putting them together.

As the versions changed and features were added that allowed me more control on location and orientation I would go back and redo old work and see how they looked different.

And all of that that was my breakthrough.

I started to see how motion lines work, experimented with profiles and realized when side worked better than front, and got a grasp on those thumbs, which are simple but essential components to distinguishing words. (kind of like ban, pan, dan, and fancy L with a loop lan all create different words by rotating the shape of one letter, see and watch, shoes and exercise, show-me and show-you all depend on thumb orientation to help distinguish them)

It was all due to the typing.

So, without further ado, Bee Olive's ASLWrite Type font v 1.7 (usuable in Zoho Writer, libreoffice, 3Dpaint, possibly microsoft word but I'm not sure, and anywhere you can upload your own ligature font file) (this link only works as long as she keeps it up. I might also upload it as a separate file set just as a back up).

Note that you have the font file AND a PDF explaining it. Keep that PDF close to your heart, its your bible, your north star, your trust fund, and the credit card your grandpa left you for emergencies.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ggp-2Tnzdy8jOpicos-PMFQqcV8pK2H2

As always, go join slwrite.org for feedback on your work, or if you want to access the fledgling dictionary