She spent the rest of her childhood in Corona del Mar, and as an adult moved to the San Diego, California area, where she has since lived.[1] In California, she credits the influence of Disney animation, as well as the theater and dance environment of Hollywood for directing her interest toward movement.In 1974, articles about Sutton's DanceWriting system came to the attention of Lars van der Leith, a sign language researcher, and others who worked with him at the Audiologopædisk Forskningsgruppe of the University of Copenhagen, and they asked for a demonstration.As a result, van der Leith and his colleagues asked Sutton to develop a version of her movement notation adapted to the recording of sign languages.The presentation "Writing the American Sign Language Wikipedia on Incubator" involved 3 Deaf editors, Valerie Sutton, and Stephen E Slevinski Jr, along with two interpreters.
Valerie Sutton explaining the American Sign Language Wikipedia during NA Wiki Conference 2016