SIGN DIC
a bilingual dictionary program
between signed and spoken languages

by

Computer Programmer:
Daniela Remião de Macedo

The Sign Dic Computer Program is under development. It will be a computational tool with multimedia features that allows the generation of bilingual dictionaries between a signed and spoken language. The development of this tool was motivated by the inexistence of such dictionaries and by the scarcity of appropriate educational software for deaf people. The main goal of Sign Dic is to offer to deaf users a computational tool to make it easier to teach and to learn sign language and spoken language writing. It will also stimulate users to learn sign language. In the dictionaries generated with Sign Dic, the signs can be sequentially organized in two different ways: in accordance with their gestual features, through the description of their internal structures, or in accordance with the alphabetical ordinance of their respective meanings in a spoken language. Thus, the searching of signs in the dictionaries can be made through the spoken language or the sign language. The SignWriting system that offers a graphical notation for signs is used to represent the signs in the dictionaries. Besides spreading the use of sign language and stimulating hearing people to learn it, the Sign Dic program has the aim to facilitate the learning of words in spoken languages for deaf people, thus allowing a better integration of deaf people into society.

...click here to see Sign Dic's Screen 1 & 2... About Daniela Remião de Macedo Daniela received her B.Sc.in Computer Science from the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio Grande Do Sul, Faculdade de Informatica (PUCRS), in Porto Alegre, Brazil In 1995, Daniela moved to San Diego, California, studying at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). When Daniela returned to Brazil, after living for some time in San Diego, she worked as a Software Designer in a company for two years in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In 1997 Daniela started to study in the M.Sc. program in Computer Science at PUCRS. Her advisor was Dr. Antônio Carlos da Rocha Costa, who showed Daniela the SignWriting system for the first time, and since then Daniela has learned a little about Sign Language. Sign Dic is Daniela's contribution to Deaf people and to those who are interested in Deaf Education. For more information about Sign Dic, write to: Daniela Remião de Macedo Computer Programmer: Daniela Remião de Macedo SignInf Adapting Information Technology For Deaf Education

...other related articles... SignWriting In Brazil Children's Story Written In Brazilian Sign Language Uma Menina Chamada Kauana by Marianne Stumpf History of SignWriting in Brazilian Portuguese Um capítulo da história do SignWriting by Ronice Müller de Quadros