Teacher Kirsty Vessey with pupils Michael Ash and Jasmine Freeman
A newly qualified teacher is helping future generations of deaf people learn about the wonderful world of science by creating new British Sign Language (BSL) signs.
Kirsty Vessey, who teaches at Royal School for the Deaf Derby, has experienced first-hand the frustration faced by interpreters during her university lectures as there were no signs for certain complex scientific words and terminologies – meaning they had to spell them out.
She has now used this to help create the signs for 404 new words that can contribute to conversations about the environment and biodiversity. These will be used by BSL users around the world.
Kirsty worked with Dr Audrey Cameron and Gary Quinn, of Herriot Watt University, to create signs for terminologies like cryosphere, which can be difficult to fingerspell at high speeds.
This was the first time Kirsty has taken part in a project like this, which took a year to complete. She was recommended for it by her colleagues at Royal School for the Deaf Derby.
She said: “I met with Audrey and Gary Quinn of Herriot Watt University online and I was selected based on my expertise, and knowledge and fluency in BSL. The project is a collaboration between The Royal Society and the Scottish Sensory Centre, where the aim was to make environmental science more accessible for sign language users.
“The development of these signs means that BSL users can contribute to conversations about the current threat to biodiversity and the environment, it also means that the deaf voice can be heard at future global climate and biodiversity summits.
“When I joined the team, I was thrilled because I remembered the frustration that interpreters and I faced during my university days when we did not have BSL available for subject-specific terminologies like ‘anthropomorphism’.
“This was particularly challenging to fingerspell when interpreting at high speeds during lectures.”
In total, Kirsty has helped create 404 terms and they were split into four themes. The first two -ecosystems and biodiversity; and physical environment and pollution – are now on the Scottish Sensory Centre website.
The remaining two have been completed and will be released soon.
Some of the words include rewilding, ecological succession, carbon footprint, anthropogenic, greenhouse gasses and atmosphere.
The whole progress included approximately 15 people in various roles, including sign development, video editing, and translating BSL to English.
Kirsty said: “During each theme, our team had six sessions where we would meet on Zoom with Audrey and a BSL linguist named Gary Quinn. Together, we worked collaboratively to create a sign that effectively demonstrated the concept of the term being discussed.
“For example, to convey the idea of ‘carbon footprint,’ we used a sign that involved the left hand forming a C-shape with the right-hand fingers fluttering away from the left hand to represent the carbon being released into the environment. The terms that the team worked on were sourced from GCSE and A-Level resources.
“During the discussion of the definitions, we developed each sign by exploring various handshapes until we achieved the perfect BSL sign that clearly conveyed a visual representation of the concept.”
Kirsty is now teaching her own pupils the new signs for the scientific terms.
Head teacher Paul Burrows said: “This will help so many BSL users around the world when it comes to learning more about science. The Royal School for the Deaf Derby is proud to be leading the way in the world of science and the BSL community.”
