About the BSL Glossary

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.

Having completed the Maths glossary trial in 2006, the SSC has been awarded a grant from the Scottish Executive Education Department to produce a glossary of BSL science signs during 2007.

The steering group will meet throughout the year to direct the project; it includes teachers of deaf children, experts in science and linguistics, deaf pupils and deaf science teachers. We are aiming to produce up to 250 science signs with explanations. The project hopes to provide access to the glossary through BSL handshape as well as the more usual English alphabetical order. The day to day work for the project will be carried out by a group of deaf science teachers including Gerry Hughes and Audrey Cameron. Linguistic monitoring of the project is being provided by researchers from Heriot Watt University. The project uses a bulletin board so that teachers and deaf pupils can check on the progress and provide feedback to the team about which explanations are clearest.

The three new curriculum subject areas will be:

Physics

Chemistry

Biology

(These will become live links as the project progresses.)