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To find some appropriate sites, we browsed our way to Yahoo!'s Sign Languages category (under Social Science > Linguistics). We could have also searched for the phrase "sign language" and gotten the same result. Once there, we spotted several sites dedicated to teaching the positions and movements that comprise American Sign Language (the "standard" for those communicating by hand). The first, listed as the Animated American Sign Language Dictionary, is especially nice in that the moves used to make up specific words and phrases are illustrated using animated GIFs (quick-loading mini-movies). Next is SIGNhear, a well-organized site from Thinkquest, a yearly student design contest and source of educational web sites. You won't find animations, but there are clear, simple illustrations for letters, numbers, and many elementary words. Finally, not as wide-ranging as the previous sites, American Sign Language Fingerspelling is still worth noting. It photographically illustrates each of the 26 letters of the ASL alphabet and allows you to "convert" words from text to their fingerspelling equivalents. There is also a quiz, which is useful for serious students of the language.
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