Some initial studies found that Deaf communities prefer video or writing systems for the dominant language, however this claim has been disputed by the work of Steve and Dianne Parkhurst in Spain where they found initial resistance, later renewed interest, and finally pride. "If Deaf people learn to read and write in their own signing system, that increases their self-esteem", says Dianne Parkhurst. , SignWriting is widely used at International Sign forums. It is adopted in as many as 40 countries, among which are Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Tunisia, and the United States. SignWriting, as the International Sign Writing Alphabet (ISWA), has been proposed as the manual equivalent to the International Phonetic Alphabet. However, some researchers argue that the SignWriting is not a phonemic orthography and does not have a one-to-one map from phonological forms to written forms. Although such a claim is disputed, it has been recommended that countries adapt this sign on a language-by-language basis. There are two doctoral dissertations that study and promote the application of SignWriting to a specific sign language. Maria Galea wrote about using SignWriting to write Maltese Sign Language. Also, Claudia Savina Bianchini wrote her doctoral dissertation on the implementation of SignWriting to write Italian Sign Language. In SignWriting, a combination of iconic symbols for handshapes, orientation, body locations, facial expressions, contacts, and movement are used to represent words in sign language. Since SignWriting, as a featural script, represents the actual physical formation of signs rather than their meaning, no phonemic or semantic analysis of a language is required to write it. A person who has learned the system can "feel out" an unfamiliar sign in the same way an English speaking person can "sound out" an unfamiliar word written in the Latin alphabet, without even needing to know what the sign means. The number of symbols is extensive and often provides multiple ways to write a single sign. Just as it took many centuries for English spelling to become standardized, spelling in SignWriting is not yet standardized for any sign language. Words may be written from the point of view of the signer or the viewer. However, almost all publications use the point of view of the signer, and assume the right hand is dominant. Sutton originally designed the script to be written horizontally (left-to-right), like English, and from the point of view of the observer, but later changed it to vertical (top-to-bottom) and from the point of view of the signer, to conform to the wishes of Deaf writers.