SignWriting

signWriting is a system of writing sign languages developed by Valery Sutton, sometimes named «Sutton SignWritting».

Preknowledge
In 1966, at the age of 15, the American Valerie Sutton developed a system for personal notes to record ballet choreographies. In 1970 she moved to Denmark to practice in the Royal Danish Ballet. There she used her dance memo to write choreographies from the Bournonville School that were in danger of being forgotten. A 1973 publication of the system and a dance writing course for members of the ballet led to the publication of the notation in a newspaper report in 1974, which was read by scientists from the University of Copenhagen. The suggestion for further processing of movement writing for sign language came from the anthropologist Dr. Rolf Kuschel and by Lars von der Lieth. The former had recorded the signs of a single deaf inhabitant of a South Pacific island on film. A written record was necessary to analyze this man's language. They asked Sutton to write down the gestures recorded on film. The transcription by SignWriting of this deaf "inventor" of a sign language can probably be seen as the first recording of signs of the deaf in modern times. The writing system developed further and further away from the original movement writing and was adapted to the requirements of a sign describing writing. The gestures and facial expressions of listening Danes were also recorded by the research group led by Lieth using the symbols from SignWriting. From 1975 to 1979 Valerie Sutton worked in the dance department of the Boston Conservatory. In the meantime, she continued to develop her SignWriting when she met the New England Sign Language research group. In 1977 deaf adults, actors of the National Theater of the Deaf, learned signwriting for the first time. In 1979 she worked for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which publishes American Sign Language fonts that are illustrated in SignWriting

Activity
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D800.pdf