Recognition of Sign Languages: a few signed videos

[Claude Almansi]

[This message was originally sent via Amara messaging to the participants of the Captions Requested Amara team]

Hi, dear participants of the Captions Requested team,

In the US, there is an ongoing petition for the recognition of American Sign Language (ASL) as official language: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk . The goal is set at 25'000 signatures by December 12, and the number reached so far is slightly short of 20'000. So if you want to support it, and fill the criteria for signing up for the White House Petitions site, please do.

Two signed videos about this US petition have been added to the Captions Requested:
1. http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/AYbHRuftABux/info/president-obama-support-asl-encourage-innovation/ , subtitled in English because FEButterflyEffect's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHmLBJsP5bE original already was;
2. http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/eYSdw1IWSYxg/info/petition-to-recognize-asl/ by Kathleen Kinnee - thank you for having made it, Kathleen! - still unsubtitled so far.

Actually, the Italian Deaf community also had a petition for the recognition of the Italian Sign Language back in May 2011, because the Italian Lower House wanted to demote its internationally recognized name LIS (Lingua Italiana dei Segni - Italian Sign Language) to LMG (Linguaggio Mimico Gestuale - something like "Jargon of Mimicry and Gestures"[1]). So three videos about that attempt have been added to the team too:

3. http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/ihXliTtBtIMN/info/lis-si-lmg-no-part-1-of-2/ by awti (about the issue), with English subtitles from the YT original;
4. http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/ee2EMlyyabsm/info/lis-si-lmg-no-part-2-of-2/ also by awti (on how to sign the petition) and with English subtitles from the YT original;
5. http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/1HFiBCiCwEby/info/ddl-lis-situazione-attuale/ by Sanxius, with Italian and English subtitles from the YT original.

And then, also in part about the same Italian bill, but more recent, there is:

6. http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/88c5jDgFcy2t/info/lintervista-in-diretta-al-presidente-nazionale-giuseppe-petrucci/, a RaiNews broadcast about several empowering projects uploaded to YouTube by the Italian Ente Nazionale Sordi (National Deaf Institution), with full subtitles in Italian [2], French - merci,  Sébastien Boulanger! -  and in progress in English. The part about the recognition of LIS and the bill starts at 13:45.

I'll also add this message to https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/universal-subtitles-deaf-hoh in case some of you wish to discuss it.

Best,

Claude Almansi
(admin at Captions Requested)

[1] "linguaggio" is not quite as disparaging as "jargon", actually. But while "lingua" (in Lingua Italiana dei Segni) indicates a full language, with its culture, "linguaggio" (in Linguaggio Mimico Gestuale) indicates a sectorial and instrumental communication means.
[2]This last video was originally unsubtitled on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9elwLqb9sA, but then YouTube activated automatic captions for Italian: though part of the autocaptions for this video, with some weird results like at 0:33, when the interpreter says and signs "corona", which the autocaption renders as "fanculo" (ca "bugger off"). Yet while the autocaptions for this video are not fit for human consumption as such, I was able to edit them in less time than starting from scratch would have taken. This editing possibility might be worth exploring for autocaptions in other languages