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Both are called 'writing sign language' and only one of them is.
A gloss writes a sign as an English word in capitals. The capitals mark it as a *label* for a sign rather than a translation, so a glossed line is not an English sentence — it is a research and teaching convention for discussing signs in a text. SignWriting is a script for the signed language itself: handshapes as small figures, movement as arrows, expression in a schematic face, laid out in two dimensions because a sign happens in space and in the face at once.
One labels signs in English text; the other is a script for the signed language itself.
Drawn from the visual attributes recorded for each symbol. Only traits the two records disagree about are listed.
| Trait | Sign language gloss | SignWriting |
|---|---|---|
| Built from | letter like, lines and dots | hands, arrows, circles and abstract |
| Sign language gloss | SignWriting | |
|---|---|---|
| Written in | Capital letters of a spoken language | Its own symbols for hands, movement and face |
| Read by | Researchers, teachers and students, in a text about signing | Readers of the signed language itself |
| Layout | A line, like ordinary text | A two-dimensional block, because a sign is not sequential |
| Is it a writing system | No — a transcription convention | Yes |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with SignWriting — One labels signs in English text; the other is a script for the signed language itself. | Commonly confused with Sign language gloss — One is a writing system and the other a way of labelling signs in English text. |
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-22
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-22
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Look at whether the adult is standing or seated. Baby changing shows an adult leaning over an infant on a table — a facility for changing a nappy. A nursing room shows a seated figure holding an infant — a private space for feeding. They are separate rooms, and signage that conflates them sends people to the wrong one.
The upright figure is the International Symbol of Access, drawn in 1968 by Susanne Koefoed and given its head a year later by Karl Montan, and registered as an international public information symbol. The leaning figure with arms back is the Accessible Icon, a campaign redesign adopted as policy by individual states, cities and companies and by no standards body. Neither is wrong. A sign using the redesign is not required and is not prohibited, which is why both appear in the same city.
The help mark is deliberately broad: it says the wearer may need assistance and says nothing about why, which is what makes it usable by people who do not wish to disclose a condition. The heart plus mark is specific to internal disability — the heart and organ conditions the badge was created for. Someone wearing the heart plus mark is making a narrower statement than someone wearing the help mark.
A surface of raised domes warns of a hazard ahead: a carriageway, a platform edge, the head of a stair. A surface of raised parallel bars guides along a route across an open area where no wall or kerb gives a line to follow. The bars are laid along the direction of travel, so the same panel turned ninety degrees means something else. A directional surface laid where a warning surface belongs invites a cane user forward into the hazard it should have stopped them at.