In the fall of 1997 I jumped out of bed every morning at 6 to go program in Perl and Javascript. What was I so excited about? I was creating one of the world's first sign language synthesis apps.

Five years later, I had essentially stopped development. Since then I've been cited many times by developers headed for the same dead end.

The bottom line is that we're not creating anything that Deaf people find valuable.

https://grieve-smith.com/blog/2025/12/the-story-of-signsynth/

#linguistics #SignLinguistics #SignLanguage

In the fall of 1997 I jumped out of bed every morning at 6 to go program in Perl and Javascript. What was I so excited about? I was creating one of the world's first sign language synthesis apps.

Five years later, I had essentially stopped development. Since then I've been cited many times by developers headed for the same dead end.

The bottom line is that we're not creating anything that Deaf people find valuable.

https://grieve-smith.com/blog/2025/12/the-story-of-signsynth/

#linguistics #SignLinguistics #SignLanguage