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Resource production of written forms of Sign Languages by a user-centered editor, SWift (SignWriting improved fast transcriber)

The SignWriting improved fast transcriber (SWift), presented in this paper, is an advanced editor for computer-aided writing and transcribing of any Sign Language (SL) using the SignWriting (SW). The application is an editor which allows composing and saving desired signs using the SW elementary components, called “glyphs”. These make up a sort of alphabet, which does not depend on the national Sign Language and which codes the basic components of any sign. The user is guided through a fully automated procedure making the composition process fast and intuitive. SWift pursues the goal of helping to break down the “electronic” barriers that keep deaf people away from the web, and at the same time to support linguistic research about Sign Languages features. For this reason it has been designed with a special attention to deaf user needs, and to general usability issues. The editor has been developed in a modular way, so it can be integrated everywhere the use of the SW as an alternative to written “verbal” language may be advisable.