JSPad: a sign language writing tool using SignWriting

Abstract

SignWriting is a practical writing system for sign languages. In this paper we present a software program, JSPad, for writing Japanese sign language (JSL) with SignWriting. SignWriting has a large set of visually iconic symbols that represent handshapes, movements, locations and facial expressions; it can take a lot of time to find and choose appropriate symbols from the set to compose signs, particularly for novice users of SignWriting. JSPad can generate SignWriting signs from JSL text written in the JJS notation, which is a gloss-based notation system we proposed. This facility allows users to write JSL sentences in SignWriting in shorter time.