"Speaking Hands" Online – with Finger Spell Flashcards

Birgit Butz just wrote me to say that her new German language website www.sprechende-haende.de is now online."Speaking Hands" is focused on baby signing, with information about courses, games and books about baby signing. Oh yes, she integrated the Fingerspell Flashcards directly into her site, so you can practice and master Fingerspelling in German.

My entry into signing was through baby signs. Some friends of mine used baby signs to communicate with their son before he was ready to talk and I had a similar experience with my daughter. It made life so much easier for everyone involved (and today at 7, my daughter is a very eloquent speaker).

So Birgit, I think yours is a very worthwhile endeavor! Best of luck to you and your site!

How are you using the Finger Speller Flashcards?

The Fingerspell Flashcards have been online for just over 3 months now. Over 1'200 people have visited the site. 20% are repeat visitors and it looks like a hundred or so come back regularly to practice the finger alphabet and master fingerspelling.

So I am curious: Why are you using the FSFS? How did you find out about it? Do you like the program? (Or if you decided not to use it, why not?) How can I make the program better? Please post a comment or use the English contact form or the German contact form to drop me a line.

Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you!

Internet Explorer: Curses, Foiled Again!

Under the heading of things I will never do again: Report having found "the last bug." There is never a last bug.

I have gotten reports from users that the current version of the Fingerspell Flashcards does not show any letters or pictures when using the Internet Explorer version 6.

I develop the Flashcards using Firefox. I test it on Windows using Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 and 3, and on the Mac using Firefox 2.0 and Safari 3.1, but I have no access and therefore no ability to support Internet Export 6.

If anyone would like to send me a patch, please do so! I will be pleased to integrate it into the site.

Fingerspell LSF: Volunteer/Help Wanted

Now that the core of the Flashcards is working reasonably well, my next project will be to install the French LSF (langue de signes français) alphabet.

For me as non-signer it came as quite a surprise to discover that the signing alphabet is not standardized. While there are similarities, the differences can be substantial. Which brings us to the LSF alphabet. (We won't even talk about fingerspelling BSL British Sign Language, which is a two handed alphabet and therefore completely different. Under the heading of surpises, LSF and ASL American Sign Language are said to be quite similar, whereas BSL and ASL are completely different! Who would have thought?)

In any case, I have the pictures to publish the fingerspell flashcards in French. But it seems that it would be more accesible to French signers if the web site and program were also in French. But this exceeds my abilities in French.

So: Help Wanted. Someone to translate 4 web pages into French: the FAQ, the About Us page, the Contact page and the program itself. You can do it from the English or German orginals. All told about 4 to 6 A4 pages. There is no money involved, but you will see my eternal thanks posted on this blog :-)

Please contact me if you can help. Thanks in advance!

The Last Bug :-)

Well, it took some digging, but I finally got the fingerspeller flashcards to run properly on any speed internet line.

For the technically inclined, the FSFC now uses a Just in Time loading algorithm to load the letter images. It now checks that the image has been downloaded before attempting to display it. If it's not there, it waits until the image is loaded. So you don't have to wait for it to download the entire gallery, but the first time though the alphabet it may be a bit jittery.

If you're using a dialup line or broadband with less than 150kpbs and the effect is bothersome, you may want to set the speed to deaf, then click on 'A-Z' just after you start the program. Have a cup of coffee while it downloads the entire alphabet ;-). Then it should work just fine for you, whatever your internet connection.

Performance, Performance

I've been working on the initial load times and the Fingerspell Flashcard program should now start executing after about 4 seconds on a 128 Kpbs ISDN line (compared to 15 seconds or more before).

If you are having problems with some letters not displaying correctly, especially animated letters like J or Z, try:

1. Reload the page,
2. Set the speed to 'Beginner'
3. Display 'A-Z'.
   

This will load all the images. You made need to repeat this once or twice until all the images are properly loaded. I'm working on this.

The Flashcards should now work with a 128kpbs (with a bit of patience) line and work well on a 256K or better broadband line.

I am working on this problem and should have a better fix soon.

Updated Version with better usability

I have just published a new version of the Fingerspell Flashcards. This version should be easier to use than the previous version.

Improvements include:

• Controls to display a random word or a word of your choosing have been moved to the top
• New Button to Hide and Show the text as it is spelled out
• Preferences moved to the bottom
• Scaling is now properly supported - if you have an 800x600 screen, just use the Page->Zoom (on ie7) or View->Text Size->Decrease (on Firefox) until the window fits in your screen.

As before, there are direct links to:

• ASL — American Sign Language
  
• DGS — Deutsche Gebärdensprache/German Sign Language
  
• DSGS — Deutschschweizer Gebärdensprache/Swiss German Sign Language

I have tested the new version with Firefox 2.0 on Windows and Mac, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari and it seems to work everywhere. (I don't have access to Internet Explorer 6, so if you have problems, please let me know!

Special Thanks to usability specialist Angie Born of Zeix for her helpful suggestions!

Performance Improvements

Based on some feedback I have been getting from my classmates, I have made some performance improvements.

The javascript is now downloaded as one file instead of 4 and is compressed. So the download is reduced from over 200Kb to just 60Kb.

Pictures are loaded on demand, rather than all at once at the beginning. So no bandwidth is wasted loading pictures you are not going to look at right away.

I plan to increase the compression on the pictures this weekend, which should help even more.

I would recommend using the Flashcards on an Internet Connect of at least 256Kb (DSL, Cable, other Broadband). I'm trying to get to the point where it works well on 128Kb ISDN. Stay tuned...

German Version Finished, Browser Testing Completed

The Fingerspell Flashcards (or Fingeralphabet-Lernkarten as they are known in German) is now available in English and German. This includes not just the fingerspelling alphabets, but also the language for the entire website.

You can use the site in English or German. You can Fingerspell using German (DGS), Swiss German (DSGS), or American (ASL) alphabets. The dictionaries are dependent on the alphabet chosen. So Swiss German uses Swiss German first names and place names, ASL users US-American names and place names, etc.

The Flashcards have been tested with Firefox 1.5 and 2.0, Safari and Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0, and all seem to work properly. I also tried it out on an iPhone, where it also worked perfectly on the on the first try — and it was really cool to boot! If I get enough feedback saying people want it, I'll do an optimized port.

So here are the direct links to the various versions:

• Fingerspell Flashcards ASL
• Fingeralphabet-Lernkarten DGS
• Fingeralphabet-Lernkarten DSGS

Any problems, just let me know. Otherwise, Have fun!

Special Thanks to Elena, Claus, Noel, Ben, Denis, Bruno and Haydar, all colleagues at namics, for their help in in fine tuning the look and tracking down those last pesky CSS bugs.

German Dictionaries Now Active

I have been working on getting German language (Deutsche Gebärdensprache DGS) support on line. I have now added German German (as opposed to Swiss German) dictionaries so you can practice Sharp-S's ("ß").

The "Easy Dictionary" is list of some 400 popular first names (none of which has a Sharp-S). The "hard" dictionary is a collection of about 2500 German place names. If you are using the Swiss German (DSGS) alphabet, it will display a "ß" as "ss".

The Fingerspell Flashcards may take a while to start, as everything is loaded in advance. Future enhancement: load dictionaries and photos in the background. Be patient, it will come :-). But first I want to do a German language version of the web site.

A special thanks to Jörg Reinholz of fastix.de for making a database of German Places freely available.

FingerSpell Flashcards Now Online

The hard part of learning to fingerspell is not learning the forms, but learning to read and sign them at the speed that a native speaker would actually use.

Fingerspell Flashcards is a new online flash card system to learn and build proficiency in Fingerspelling, both spelling out words and reading words that other people sign to you.

With Fingerspell Flashcards, you can

• Learn fingerspelling.
• Practice in your language.
• Practice with or without displaying the corresponding text
• Learn the signs. You can display the entire alphabet. Position the mouse over a letter and see the corresponding sign. Complex signs, like j and z are displayed with an animation
• Build proficiency - you can see a random word finger spelled. If you understand it, show a new word. If you are not sure, repeat it. If you need confirmation, display the word as text.
• Build speed - chose from Beginner (Each character is displayed 1.5 seconds) to "Deaf" (each letter is displayed about 1/2 second)

Presently the FingerSpell Flashcards support:

• ASL — American Sign Language
• DGS — Deutsche Gebärdensprche/German Sign Language
• DSGS — Deutsch Schweizer Gebärdensprache/Swiss German Sign Language
• LSF — Langue des Signees Française/French Sign Language is in preparation.

Others languages can be supported on request.

You can find out more about it on the website or just try it out.

In any case, have fun!