Why the FZG was founded
At the time of the founding of the FZG in 1982, not only was there little to no academic research on the local Swiss languages, but the whole idea that sign language is a 'real' language was quite foreign. Almost all of the Swiss German institutions that had to do with the schooling or further education of deaf children or training of teachers for these schools were opposed to the use of sign language. An exclusively 'oral' approach reigned, which involved teaching the deaf child to speak and lipread German and did not tolerate signing in the classroom, as the ideology of the day was this would deflect the child from learning the spoken language. Even the regional deaf association, in its initial efforts at the time to support a signed form of communication, spoke of 'signing' but not of 'sign language'. The private nonprofit FZG was thus founded to begin research on sign language, research which was not possible at official, existing institutions or organizations.
Early Support of the FZG
The very first research study done by the FZG (comparing dialects of DSGS) was financed by an association of biologists in Basel. However, there were fortunately also several other persons who were excited about and willing to support the idea of researching sign language. Several formed an association in 1983, expressly to support the new FZG. Several years later, the association changed its name to offer broader support to sign language research in general and became known as the 'Verein zur Unterstützung der Gebärdensprache' (Association for the Support of Sign Language), in short, VUGS. While the limited financial resources of this association couldn't support large scale research projects, it did fund some smaller projects. Its major contribution, besides important moral support, was the annual publication of an information series which reported on research done by the FZG as well as on sign language research and signing culture in general. Throughout the years, the FZG has also received valuable advice and support from research colleagues within Switzerland and abroad, especially François Grosjean (University of Neuchatel), Virginia Volterra (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche /CNR), Rome) Siegmund Prillwitz (Hamburg University), and Gudula List (Cologne).
Collaboration with other institutions
Small research studies (for example, on dialects in Swiss German Sign Language, on gestures used by orchestra conductors, on 'co-speech' gestures used by hearing speakers, etc.) have been privately funded by the FZG. Other projects have been carried out in collaboration with colleagues at other European institutions (Rome, Bristol).
The first larger project was funded by a Swiss Science Foundation grant (Schweizerischer Nationalfonds, SNF) to the FZG (Boyes Braem 1995). Subsequent larger projects, particularly those funded by the SNF have been carried out in collaboration with the Heilpädagogische Seminar in Zürich (now Interkantonale Hochschule für Heilpädagogik /HfH in Zürich) as well as with the Swiss Deaf Association (SGB-FSS). In 2011, the FZG began a collaboration with the Institute for Computer Linguistics at the University of Zürich and since 2012 has been 'associate member' of the Zurich Competency Center for Linguistics (Zürcher Kompetenzzentrum Linguistik, ZüKL of the University of Zürich.
Acknowledgement of Support
The FZG has benefited from the generous support of several organizations and institutions throughout its history.
The association VUGS (Verein zur Unterstützung der Gebärdensprache), which was active from 1983 to 2015, was an important early supporter of the FZG. It produced several publications related to sign language research and provided financial support for the continued HamNoSys notation of signs in the Databank for the Lexicon of Swiss German Sign Language. In its final year, VUGS made a further donation that enabled the addition of annotated sign-language texts to the Databank. Throughout its existence, VUGS and its members also provided invaluable moral support and encouragement for the FZG’s projects.
Several funding institutions have supported major FZG projects, most notably the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Max Bircher Foundation.
We are also grateful for the many opportunities for collaboration provided by the University of Teacher Education in Special Needs (Interkantonale Hochschule für Heilpädagogik, HfH) in Zurich and the Zurich Competence Center for Linguistics (ZüKL) at the University of Zurich.
In addition to this institutional support, the FZG has received financial and moral support from individual donors, many of whom have preferred to remain anonymous.