She began her research by gathering documents, tracing the origins of Taiwan's education of the hearing impaired to the Japanese era. Early signing in Taiwan relied on "natural sign language," which is graphic and iconic, and relies on everything from hand shapes to facial expressions to convey meaning.
林亞秀開始蒐集文獻資料，追溯出台灣的聽障教育源於日據時代，走的是「自然手語」路線，強調視覺化及圖像化，即透過手勢、臉部表情來表達意思。