About the BSL Glossary

view about the BSL glossary in BSL
View About the Maths Glossary in BSL

Welcome to the BSL Glossary Project. With this project, the SSC aims to develop lists of subject-specific terms (called a glossary) in British Sign Language. There are many places on the internet where you can now find subject specific signs in BSL. The SSC BSL Glossary's unique feature is that we also have definitions in BSL and often lab movies or examples to add additional background knowledge to the definition. Our target audience is deaf young people at school who use BSL and who want to learn independently using the internet. We are also pleased to know that many teachers, Communication Support Workers, interpreters and parents are using the Glossary too.

A pilot for the Glossary project started with 80 Maths terms signed by Gerry Hughes, who was working with the late Dr Mary Brennan in 2005. Since then the Glossary has grown so there are today, in 2012, 850 signs and nearly as many definitions in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subject areas. We have focused on the STEM subjects to start with because we have found a strong team of Deaf scientists and Maths graduates who have helped us collect and develop BSL vocabulary in these areas. However, we aim to expand the Glossary into all areas of the curriculum. We are interested to know your views about what subject areas you would like us to tackle next.

The Science glossary

The project has received funding from several sources. In 2007 we received £25,000 from the Scottish Government which allowed us to make a start with Chemistry, Biology and Physics. Since then we have received additional funds from Learning Teaching Scotland (as it was in 2008), from SQA in 2009 and from the STEM Disability Committee (which composes of representatives from the Royal Academy of Engineering, The Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine) in 2011-12. As we have found more funding we have been able to expand the number of science terms and BSL definitions.

What does a glossary contain?

view what does a glossary contain in BSL
View What does a glossary contain in BSL

A glossary is a list of words, and this one contains BSL signs for mathematical and science terms. In fact the BSL movies form a bilingual application that is somewhat like a dictionary. Each entry in the glossary provides a BSL sign for a maths or science term, and often there is also a fingerspelled form.

In addition, many entries contain a movie that explains the meaning of the term in BSL (a definition), or provides an example of how the term can be used in BSL, within the context of a truly BSL/English bilingual understanding of mathematical and scientific concepts. Therefore English translations accompany the movies, and they also facilitate the glossary's organisation and searches.

Background to the Project


View Background in BSL

The current Glossary Project organising team is made up of four people:
Dr Audrey Cameron - a Deaf Chemistry teacher who has recently taken the lead on the STEM Disability Committee's Physics project to expand physics terms.
Gary Quinn - a Deaf linguist from Heriot Watt University who provides support and advice about BSL from a linguistic perspective.
Rachel O'Neill - lecturer in deaf education in the Institute of Teaching, Learning and Management at Moray House School of Education
Elizabeth Izatt - web manager at the Scottish Sensory Centre

How we work

This team has worked with a wider group of Deaf scientists and Maths/science teachers from across the UK who have provided the SSC with advice about what technical terms exist in BSL already in the area of Physics, Chemistry and Biology. They have also participated in Sign Collection/Creation weekend workshops where existing terms were discussed and definitions drafted. These teams also considered how new terms could be coined in BSL, working under the supervision of Gary Quinn.

The team of consultants meet together usually for a weekend, and these meetings take place entirely in BSL. We record our work in draft form on video as we go. In some cases it is quick to find a sign, because one or several are already in existence amongst the experts in the group. NOCTURNAL and TENSION are examples of these collected signs. Another group of signs have been created by the team, using information about the concept and following the principles of the BSL productive lexicon. ENZYME and EXOTHERMIC are examples of signs like this. There is often debate in the group about some signs. For example, the term INVERTEBRATE was discussed and a sign agreed, but some members of the group tried this out with a wider group of BSL users and suggested an alternative sign which was then agreed by the group.

Some scientific concepts are particularly hard for all children to understand. The project is pleased with the signs devised for DENSITY, WEIGHT and MASS as we feel they reflect the concepts well. Perhaps they might be useful for hearing children too!

Definitions in BSL first

Once the signs are agreed, the definitions are produced in BSL. The teams use information from textbooks and their own experience to produce the definitions. We sometimes need to refilm some definitions to make them more accurate; this is similar to the process involved in making a printed dictionary when the definitions often takes a long time to devise. Finally, members of the project team translate the definitions into English. Graphics are then sourced and copyright agreed to add images to many of the entries. In the glossary we also group words together in topic areas to help users navigate the glossary in different ways.

Relationship with the wider Deaf Education and Deaf Community

The Glossary project has close links with deaf education in Scotland and throughout the UK. Most of the responses we have collected have been in Scotland from deaf BSL-using pupils and from teachers of deaf children. Through comments received from teachers, Communication Support Workers, parents, deaf young people and Deaf people who are experts in linguistics and science, we realise that there is a great deal of interest in our project from inside and outside the Deaf community.

Science Shows

Dr Audrey Cameron and Gary Quinn have been involved since 2007 in Science shows particularly aimed at young deaf people in order to publicise the work of the Glossary project. Here are some of the events from the last two years:

Making Connexion, Linlithgow 2011
Newcastle Science Festival, 2011
Manchester Science Festival 2011
Dunbar SciFest 2011 and 2012
The Royal Academy of Engineering, London 2012
DEAFinitely Science Day, Newcastle 2012
University of Sheffield, Summer Lecture 2012
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Medical Biochemistry Institute, Rio de Janeiro 2012

Below is a video clip showing our Chemistry Show in BSL on Youtube