Sign language for climate change

Climate action through signing - 2nd October 2023

British Sign Language (BSL) users and scientists have created new signs for ecology and environment related terms. These new signs make science more inclusive for deaf and hard of hearing students.

The Scottish Sensory Society sign language project's added 200 new signs for scientific terms related to climate change and ecology. Dr Audrey Cameron, who leads the project, expresses, "We're trying to create the perfect signs that visualise scientific concepts."

Previously, BSL speakers needed to spell out the terms letter by letter, making communication often functionally impossible. For deaf scientists, the new terms could enable better participation at international conferences and during research meetings.

Dr Cameron, who's deaf herself, has experienced being left out of the conversation firsthand. She commented, "I was involved in research for 11 years and went to numerous meetings but was never truly involved because I couldn't understand what people were saying… I wanted to talk with people about chemistry and I just wasn't able to."

The project's part of the Royal Society's science glossary fund, which has added 7,000 signs to BSL since 2007, and aims to add 200 more signs themed around energy and climate change's impact on humans.

A science workshop in Glasgow is already using the new terms to teach deaf secondary school students. Thirteen year old Melissa thinks the new visually based signs make understanding abstract concepts easier. Shaking her left hand as a loose fist, representing "gas", and zigzagging her right index finger up and down as a "sunray", Melissa explains, "With the sign, I can see something is happening with the gas."

Head of the Royal Society diversity and inclusion committee Jeremy Sanders hopes the new signs "will inspire and empower the next generation of BSL-using students and allow practising scientists to share their vital work with the world."