Category: 2020

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THE FINAL WORD

I completed my final addition to MY ASL DICTIONARY on the last day of the year 2020. I discovered almost too late that I had forgotten to include the sign for Advanced Sign Language. For a dictionary on sign language, this was not acceptable. As I had used cartoons of figures from deaf history before, I chose to use a cartoon of William Stokoe for Advanced Sign Language. Unfortunately, the page for this word was already full, so while my dictionary mentions Stokoe in the introduction to sign language page, there was no extra room to include his bio. Quite a shame as his work as a linguist and professor at Gallaudet University legitimized ASL as a National Language. In 1960, he published Sign Language Structure, which had the first use of the term American Sign Language. In 1965 he co-authored A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, the first American Sign Language Dictionary. Perhaps a future edition of MY ASL DICTIONARY will contain this extra information.

I drew a cartoon of a young William Stoke, adding his name to the graduation gown and placing the image of the first American Sign Language dictionary behind him, completing MY ASL DICTIONARY on Thursday, December 31, 2020. Even though a few extra words would be added later, it’s fitting that the final word for the book was Advanced Sign Language with William Stokoe.

William Stokoe
The Last Word
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BLOWING THE HORN

When the Tellwell Marketing Department sent me a rather humbling questionnaire about my knowledge of marketing and public media I realized I didn’t have the asl sign for Advertise in my dictionary. Keeping with my promise to finish the book by the end of 2020, I completed the sign for Advertise on December 28, 2020, with a few days left to spare. I informed Tellwell of the change, pointing out all the extra words that came with the new sign, and gave them a copy of the updated book.

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THE FIRST AD

The first advertisement I created for my dictionary. Because of the expense of paper and colour printing, it was a mutual decision with Tellwell Talent to publish my book digitally. While other book ads usually present pictures of the book cover posed beside a sunset and glowing reviews, I wanted the ad to focus on the fact my book was digital. To show my book working on a digital device, I inserted the book’s cover and Manual Alphabet into a picture of a Kindle. This wouldn’t be the first time I used this graphic design, but it was the first ad. I also enjoyed the ad’s preview of what my dictionary would look like in use.

my asl dictionary on kindle

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HAT TRICK

For the header of my Deaf History Page, I drew another original cartoon of the three catalysts to Deaf education in American and American Sign Language. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Alice Cogswell, and Laurent Marie Clerc. The story goes that Gallaudet, with no way to talk to his neighbour’s deaf daughter Alice, started communicating with her by pointing to his hat and writing down the word hat. With other tests to follow it became clear Alice was both bright and intelligent, something not believed in the 1800s to exist in the deaf. It was agreed all she required was a new form of schooling and communication. Gallaudet leaving to travel Europe in the search for Deaf Education ran into Sicard and his best instructor Clerc. Studying Langues de Signes francais in Paris, Gallaudet told his teacher and good friend Clerc about Alice, and touched by her story and the needs of other deaf children, Clerc joined Gallaudet to return to the United States to start the first school for the deaf. The school, through language contact between French Sign Language, English, and home signs grew and evolved the visual communication of American Sign Language. All this was accomplished with what began with a pastor, a deaf girl, and a hat. I drew Gallaudet with his hat, Alice with her smile, and Clerc signing Hat in Langues des Signes Francais, the first sign language of the school.