The Mission:
The mission of our business is to provide a better more
tangible medium for reading American Sign Language (ASL).
It is well known the sign languages around the world do
not have a written form. Currently, the ASL dictionaries
use pictures with arrows to show how to move your hands
to make a sign. It is often challenging to understand how
to read the arrows to make the sign correctly. Videos and
CDs are good resources but I believe people still want to
hold something in their hands when learning or reading ASL.
Lenticular technology gives us the ability to see the movement
of a sign in a two dimensional format similar to that of
a book or dictionary. By tilting the cards back and forth
you can see the beginning location of the sign and the ending
location of the sign. Our brains have the ability to “fill
in the blanks” between the beginning and ending location
of the sign so we know how to complete the whole movement.
Our goal is to create ASL greeting cards, educational flash
cards and in the future children’s books, games and
posters all using lenticular technology. Our dream is to
see Deaf children in a classroom read information on a poster
on the wall that is “expressed” in ASL. Please
join us in making this a possibility. Portions of your support
will be donated. Please read “Donations” below.
Patent Pending
The Models:
Most of the models are deaf or have deaf family members.
My goal is to use native or near native signers so I can
capture the most natural poses and movement in each of the
signs. For me it is the facial expressions that really make
me choose which photo makes it to the printing press. It
is my belief that facial expressions not only show the correct
grammatical structure of the sign but can also show the
nuances and personality of each person. I hope you can pick
up on and enjoy the nuances of each person’s personality
as you “read” each card.
The Hand Logo:
Creating the sign with the tips of both middle fingers
touching each other can have several meanings. The sign
can mean “to connect, contact or touch”. These
are the English words I would use to translate that sign.
The reason I chose that sign was to represent the idea that
these cards would help connect all people, hearing and deaf.
Almost anyone can learn to communicate in sign language.
The amount of hearing each of us possess in our ears is
completely insignificant to learning how to communicate
with our hands and our facial expressions. Lets all connect
and communicate in ASL.
Donations:
Two percent of all proceeds earned through the sale of
these cards will be donated to an organization, school or
teacher who supports learning ASL and promoting the education
of Deaf children. As the business grows and becomes more
prosperous the percentage will increase. The recipient of
the donations will be posted on the web site at the beginning
of each new year.
2005 Donation Recipient: Lafayette Elementary
School, San Diego, CA
2006 Donation Recipient: ALL for Deaf Children, San Diego, CA
Owner Bio:
Hi. My
name is Mary Kane. I am a CODA, a child of deaf adults.
I can hear and ASL (American Sign Language) was my first
language. I grew
up surrounded by Deaf adults all using ASL. I have
one sister and two brothers, all hearing. I grew up outside
of Philadelphia, PA.
My
career in education and ASL began in 1990 when I moved
to San Diego and started interpreting in the San Diego
Unified School district. Three years later I decided to
go back to graduate school and get my Master in Arts degree
in Deaf Education at San Diego State University. When I
began graduate school I had the opportunity to teach ASL
to undergraduates. I loved it! It was so much fun.
I finished graduate school and ended up staying at San
Diego State University to teach ASL. I
became the ASL coordinator in the School of Speech Language
and Hearing Science from 1998- 2005. When I started graduate
school there were 6 ASL classes. When
I left in 2005 we had a total of 16 ASL undergraduate classes
and 1 graduate level ASL class. The program grew at a nice
pace – not
bad.
For years
ASL students told me about their difficulties in reading
the pictures and arrows in the ASL dictionaries. I thought about this for
a while. We had plenty of resources in the form of VHS
tapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs and ASL websites but students still
relied on their dictionaries to find a quick solution on
how to sign a word. I love technology and all the advances
our computers give us. I even started creating ASL video
clips that were specific to each lesson I taught. Still
the students relied on their dictionaries more often.
One day I
walked out of the lobby of our building and saw a student
sitting on the bench studying for a class. She was using flash cards she made. It
looked like it was for a biology class or something like that. This was nothing
out of the ordinary but it just struck me. It was a beautiful day out!
Who wouldn’t
want to be outside! People still like to hold books
and things in their hands. Technology is great but who
really wants to sit in front of a computer all day long.
(Well, actually I do most of the time. : / )
I thought
about this some more and was having a stream of consciousness
moment talking with my friend about people wanting to hold things in their hands. I
continued to say, “The problem is ASL has depth and movement – it
is 3 dimensional. How can we do this?” Then I said to my friend, “You
know – something
like those hologram baseball cards we had a kid. Remember
those?” As soon
as I said it I thought, “That’s it!” “Hologram
ASL cards!” As
soon as I got home I jumped on-line and googled “hologram”. After
sometime I came to find out what I really wanted was a
form of technology called “lenticular”.
It was time to get to work.
I have spent
almost 4 years (2002 – 2006) working on getting this
right. I originally
started with using a video camcorder to film children signing
words. I
soon realized the resolution from converting film to print
was horrible. I tried a regular 35 mm film camera. Talk
about a waste of money on film development! I tried the
new digital cameras (this was back in 2002 - 2003). The
shutter speed was too slow and the hands were blurred.
Finally I decided to buy a digital SLR camera with a fast
shutter speed. Success! I got the shots I had envisioned
in my head. Finally!
I went to
print my first ASL lenticular greeting card at the end
of the summer of 2004. It was little boy signing “Thank You”. This
was the least expensive means of testing the market on this idea. It takes
the lenticular printing company a while to print these up. So I patiently waited
and got the package almost 6 weeks later. It was a hit! People
loved it!
I really believe
in this idea. I want people to enjoy learning ASL by making
it fun and easy – not
to mention all the positive benefits children get when
they learn to sign at an early age. It was time to do something about it. Last
year I made one of the biggest decisions in my life. In the spring of 2005 I
decided to sell my condo and quit my job to put all my energy into this project.
Yup! I took a big
leap of faith and as I write this I couldn’t be happier
about my decision. The creative outlet and challenges of
owning a business are immeasurable. Everyday I learn something
new about the business world, people and about myself.
Since
then I have designed a girl (my niece) signing “Thank
You”, Santa
Claus (my dad) signing “Merry Christmas” – one
of my favorites and an “I Love You” card. So
far this is what makes up my line of greeting cards. I
have many more designs in my head waiting to be captured
on the camera and on the computer. Recently I have expanded
in making educational flash cards for parents. This is
the first of a series of cards I plan to design. It
is called “First Signs”. I chose 15 common
words parents use with their infants. I plan to continue
this line later this summer. One day soon I hope you will
see ASL dictionaries made with lenticular imaging, more
classroom posters in ASL that move and children’s
books that are so interactive and fun to read children
can’t
put them down.
I‘m on a roll now!
I have this quote posted above my monitor. It reads, “Those
who say it can’t be done should not interrupt the
person doing it.” Remember that.
Featured Link
Deaf Welcome Foundation Say It in Sign Feature: http://www.deafwelcome.org/SayItInSign.htm
