u/Gurfad

Hey y'all!

For the future, rebranding this project to Tolewrit (tolerant + writ). Name chosen because it's meant to be tolerant of as much user error as possible. Although I haven't chosen a working alphabet yet, there've been significant developments in the project which I believe merit reporting.

EXPANSION OF THE SYMBOL LIBRARY

After applying advice I was given, some brainstorming, and stealing/adapting several letters from Thai, the current library of available symbols has gone up to 27. I believe there is significant room for both expansion and fat-trimming, as there are surely many symbols I haven't thought of as well as a few notable symbols here which are either visually redundant or too complex to warrant future use. After the 13 symbol alphabet has been finalized, surplus symbols will be kept track of for future use in brief forms or adaptations to non-English scripts.

Some symbols are already definite additions to the final alphabet, such as 5 for S/U, 8 for r/L, and 13 for M/W, but almost all the consonants are still up in the air for what symbols they'll be given to.

STANDARDIZATION OF SYMBOL CONSTRUCTION & CONSTRUCTION NOTATION

As the symbol library grew and consistent replication/description of the new symbols became an increasingly cumbersome task. To aid in this and the systematic construction of new symbols, I've come up with standard notation to describe the structure of symbols.

Although each symbol is technically done in only 1 pen stroke, I've noticed each one is made of some combination of 6 base components, which I'll still be calling strokes for convenience's sake. These strokes are:

• A) Counterclockwise curves, notated as quadrants 1A to 4A, with 1A being concave up and left
• B) A, but clockwise and with the numbers vertically flipped
• C) A loop facing away from the central line
• D) A loop facing towards the central line
• E) Straight horizontal
• F) Straight diagonal or steep hook into the central line

NOTES

• B is flipped vertically so that 1A/1B both correspond to the start of most symbols and so that other A/B numbers remain the same when describing notation for over/underline variations of a symbol
• Notation for A/B is a curve that continues in the A/B direction until the end of the relevant quadrant has been reached (1A2B is the proper form for 1A4B1B2B)
• F is exclusively used for end strokes, since I've notice in practice that diagonal lines end up being too visually similar to equivalent curves
• For the future, I have to find some way to note unusual distinguishing features such as symbols which require curves to intersect.

ADDITION OF A PUNCTUATION/CAPITALIZATION SYSTEM

I've added some symbols that can be used for punctuation. To aid reading, punctuation distinguishes itself visually from letters by breaking the cursive chain. Punctuation symbols were made to resemble their Latin-script equivalents as much as possible while still being replicable without lifting the pen/pencil. To improve readability, punctuation cannot be vertically mirrored. I realize I neglected to add front and back slashes. Will add those in the next iteration as well as revising the semicolon.

Capitalization is done by adding a full circle around the entirety of any given symbol as an extension of the usual end stroke. Don't have working alphabet to work with, so I just demonstrated the concept with some lowercase Latin script.

FUTURE PROJECT GOALS

• Assignment of a working alphabet
• Left handed compatibility (This is a top priority since this form of cursive is highly dependent on being right handed and left handedness is roughly doubled in the dyspraxic population. prolly just gonna formalize horizontally mirroring everything and having RtL writing instead of the usual LtR)
• Spanish compatibility
• Gathering handwriting samples and getting peer feedback. My sister works as an occupational therapist and is very excited about this project, so I'll see if I can't get her to try it out with some of the kids she works with.

Will be working to further refine this into a viable script and useful tool! As always, any feedback y'all can offer on how to improve it is well appreciated!

Howdy y'all!

CONTEXT
For functional reasons, I've been interested in shorthands for a couple months now. I'm an engineering student with moderate dyspraxia, which makes my handwriting slow, painful, and oftentimes illegible. After several years of physical and occupational therapy, I average 7-9 WPM (10-15 if I write in complete chickenscratch) writing in Latin script and experience constant hand cramping as I do so. As my lectures become more information dense semester by semester, this level of handwriting is untenable, no matter how hard I optimize my notetaking.

About a month ago, I started learning Cambridge Orthic and noticed a significant improvement in speed, legibility, and a moderate reduction in pain. I still had significant difficulties with it, though, such as line creep and difficulty distinguishing between letters with similar constructions. Over this month, I've made incremental changes to the alphabet such that these issues are less severe (changing letter directions and replacing some "duplicate" symbols with new, more unique ones), but even this retrofitted system proved insufficient for my needs.

I've searched for different shorthands that I could possibly adopt, but all of them run into similar issues, such as different symbols requiring fine motor abilities I don't have, similar shapes that become hard to distinguish when written poorly, or symbols which I can technically write, but which require harshy/jerky hand motions that exacerbate my wrist pain. As such, I've decided to start from scratch and make a shorthand suited to my own needs.

PHILOSOPHY

Shithand (for people with shit hands!) is being developed with the following principles:

• Every letter must be entirely distinct in its construction, such that it's virtually impossible to mistake one letter for another, no matter how shitty the handwriting is
• Every letter must be simple to write and require as few sudden directional changes as possible so as to make writing more fluid and less painful
• Letters should be writable as continuous cursive, allowing for hastier writing with fewer sudden movements
• It should not be possible for consecutive letters to be mistaken for a different letter
• Given that dyspraxia is often roughest in early childhood when kids haven't yet learned how to compensate for their writing disabilities, Shithand must be constructed such that a kindergartener can learn it to proficiency quickly and with minimal struggle
• Ideally there should be a mechanism to prevent line creep

With these principles in mind and a willingness to sacrifice WPM for ergonomics, I hope to develop Shithand into a tool to allow dyspraxic people to function more effectively when better accommodations are otherwise inaccessible.

DEVELOPMENT

For starters, I decided to build the writing system off of a central line and have each symbol correspond two 2 letters; one on the top and another mirrored on the bottom. This had the dual benefit of creating a return point for each letter, preventing line creep, and making it so that the necessary number of distinct letters could be achieved with half as many symbols.

After that, I wrote as many distinct curve-based symbols as I could think of where they could be constructed fluidly from one letter to another regardless of whether the next letter was on the same side of the line or whether the line would need crossing. Unfortunately I could only come up with 10**(/9. 1 and 2 tend to look too similar with imprecise writing to be easily distinguished)**, so I had to add a few temporary filler symbols. Symbols 7, 10, and 13 are all reliant on straight lines, 7 can easily be mistaken for 4 when written with a rushed hand, 7 and 10 can easily be mistaken for eachother due to their only difference being size, and 13 is just 1+7, which is very bad.

After developing the alphabet, I standardized the calligraphy such that the letters can be easily distinguished by construction even with wildly imprecise handwriting and such that both top and bottom letters can be written in a fluid motion from the center. 11 has proven especially difficult to write fluidly due to the direction of its looping, so I'll be tweaking its construction in future versions.

BENEFITS

• The alphabet is simple and easy to learn
• The writing is very fluid and, for the first time in my life, I was able to write a full sentence without cramping
• Without having to constantly pause to between letters and force myself to slow down for legibility's sake, my WPM has immediately shot up beyond what I was able to achieve with even my heavily modified Orthic
• I think it looks fun :)

AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT

• There is no capitalization system
• There is no punctuation system
• 11 needs tweaking
• I need 4 new symbols minimum to make an always distinguishable alphabet
• Ideally, I would get a 5th symbol to replace 4 with, since the "bounce" from overshooting a return stroke can easily create a loop on the other side of the line that can easily be mistaken for a new letter

Appreciate any feedback, especially suggestions for new symbols! Keep in mind that they can't be duplicates only distinguished by size and that, for a normal person, they must be legible even if written while 6 drinks deep. Also avoid making contact with the central line within the same letter wherever possible