Fwd: [Wikipedia-l] new request for ASL/English wikipedia

[Andrew Gray]

Hi all. My first email was copied to the person who originally
enquired, and they've now replied directly to me; I get the impression
from this that they may not be subscribed to the list.

As such, I've let them know how to read the archives on the web and
subscribe themselves, and I'm taking the liberty of forwarding their
followup message to the list so that people can see it.

If you reply, might be helpful to copy comments to the address below.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: HHamilto at doe.k12.ga.us <HHamilto at doe.k12.ga.us>
Date: 09-Sep-2005 16:50
Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] new request for ASL/English wikipedia
To: andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk


There are approximately 500,000 users of American Sign Language(ASL)  in
the United States and many more in Canada. We will not merely be adding
sign language to articles but providing a Wikipedia in a separate
language(ASL) just as separate Wikpedias are available for German, French,
etc.... The English text article will be available as deaf users of ASL are
bilingual with varying levels of reading English. The average deaf adult
reads at about the 4th grade level
http://gri.gallaudet.edu/Literacy/#reading . Thus much of the internet  and
encyclopedias in general are inaccessible to these users due to the level
of reading required. A survey of the readability of internet sites showed
popular sites such a the NY Times and Nickelodeon were above 4th grade
level (www.readability.info). The article on cats from Wikipedia receives
the following scores

       Readability report for The cat in wikipedia.doc
           readability grades:
                   Kincaid: 11.0
                   ARI: 12.2
                   Coleman-Liau: 13.4
                   Flesch Index: 52.5
                   Fog Index: 14.4
                   Lix: 49.1 = school year 9
                   SMOG-Grading: 12.8
           As you can see these are all well above the 4th grade level.
Although simple.wikipedia.org strives to provide a version of English that
is easier to read it does not totally meet the needs of deaf users. The
readability of the "cat" article in simple wikipedia hovers at or slightly
above the 4th grade level on 2 measures of readability and is above 7th
grade on 3 measures of readability.

       Readability report for A cat in simple wikipedia.doc
           readability grades:
                   Kincaid: 4.6
                   ARI: 3.9
                   Coleman-Liau: 7.7
                   Flesch Index: 85.4
                   Fog Index: 7.4
                   Lix: 27.0 = below school year 5
                   SMOG-Grading: 7.7
To make information accessible to  deaf users ASL video is necessary that
accompanies the English text. An ASL-English bilingual Wikipedia would
provide deaf users with a tool for not only acquiring general world
knowledge via an accessible medium (American Sign Langauge) but also a
powerful educational tool for enhancing literacy by being able to compare
the ASL video and English text. Also, articles could be written tailored to
the reading level of deaf readers, rather than muddling through the text of
another wikipedia. A tool is also available for users to access the signs
for each word of the English text. It is MySignLink and is available for
free at www.aasdweb.com.MySignLink .
An ASL-English Wikipedia will also provide deaf students with a national
project that all students  can contribute to while producing their everyday
reports for their classes in Social Studies, Science, etc… It will be a
great motivator for  students to produce a product that is actually of use
to others and a great lesson for them to learn that their labor can help
others. The  deaf community can also produce articles. A deaf fly fisherman
in Montana may want to add an article on fly fishing or trout via ASL.  It
will be a source of pride in the deaf community. I hope you will agree that
American Sign Language needs a home of its own.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

(in reply to http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-September/041425.html
)

Thanks all,
-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk