si5s is a written form of American Sign Language (ASL). American Sign Language is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans and was formally recognized as a language in 1960. si5s was formed on November 7, 2003 in New York City. It had 7 years of tests and studies under the direction of Robert Arnold. In July 2010 at the Deaf Nation World Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, it was presented and formally announced to the public.
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si5s’s mission is to "Put ASL In Writing". Previously, there has been little improvement or simplicity in the writing system for ASL. Si5s’s writing system was established to document American Sign Language in printed form and create a literary corpus for the ASL community and users in all facets of society; that the ASL corpus can be used by services, agencies and schools specializing in the study, use and teaching of ASL.
Si5s’s objective is to build ASL literature in a textual form, to broaden the corpus of ASL literature spanning every genre, and encourage editorial services to be run by deaf editors to convert texts from English (or any other written language) into ASL and vice versa. Also, transliterate videos in ASL into written text, and more.
By using si5s, the object is to provide transparency between ASL, asa written language, and all other written languages. By doing so, would promote linguistic studies on both sides of the language modality. This will allow for a visual study of signed language, in a literary form, and not notational.
si5s stresses that the “written system is not to offer readers and scholars how sign language functions but how signers think and communicate in sign language.”
Robert Arnold attended the Virginia School For the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton, Virginia. He went on to college at Gallaudet University in 1980-81. In 1999, he completed his AA at Pasadena City College, and completed his Bachelors of Arts degree in Deaf Studies at California State University, Northridge. His Masters of Art in Deaf Studies was completed at Gallaudet University in 2007. In 2003, Arnold formed si5s in a Starbucks coffee shop in Astor Place, in lower Manhattan, New York. (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=287304374622937&set=a.210251578994884.52523.139888496031193&type=1&ref=nf). Arnold completed his Masters thesis, "A Proposal Of the Written System For ASL", looks at the need for a written form for ASL, and a proposal for the use of si5s. Arnold suggests that many people, including Deaf people, see no need for a written language – as there already is one, English, but instead he takes a culturally Deaf stance and proposes that the majority of the Deaf have been taught by a colonizing pedagogy, and does not include the view of Deaf individuals.
Founder, Robert Arnold, has traveled around the world to give presentations to expand the awareness of si5s. Workshops have appeared in the United States in California and Indiana, and in Europe at the Sienna School for Liberal Arts in Italy. si5s continues to travel and present workshops and presentations around the world. Robert is currently a faculty member of the Sign Language & Interpreting program at Mt. San Antonio College.
Si5s takes the origin of its language from American Sign Language. Instead of translating American Sign Language into English, si5s takes a more practical visual approach and uses symbolic lines and curves to create imagery representing the face, fingers, hands, and body. Like some previous attempts at written systems for ASL, si5s does not have a set diagram for the palm orientation of the hands, which is not even crucial for writing ASL. Instead, it uses other methods to show the palm orientation.
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