British Sign Language (BSL) uses hand shapes, facial expression, gestures and body language. It is a complete language with a unique vocabulary, construction and grammar. BSL differs to the English language in many ways. In Britain there are over 70,000 people whose first or preferred language is BSL.

The British Sign Language (BSL) Glossaries are a crucial resource in the UK for deaf children, their teachers, interpreters and parents. The Scottish Sensory Centre Glossary Project holds over 2,000 technical terms in BSL with definitions, graphics and examples. The BSL Glossary makes a huge difference to the educational prospects of deaf children who use BSL, because they can look concepts up independently, check definitions, and the staff who work with them can use technical scientific terminology and explanations consistently.

BSL has been in use in the UK education system since the 1980s, but it has not been used consistently to discuss science until recently. Our BSL terms are collected and created by groups of deaf scientific subject experts and sign linguists who meet to discuss the concepts and how they can be visualised, while keeping to the linguistic rules of BSL. The result is a gift from the deaf community to deaf children to support their education.

It takes approximately £100 per sign for us to develop, check, film, and put the sign and definition online and on our App, BSL Education. Would you like to fundraise for a particular subject area or to support our ongoing work? We would be very grateful if you could join in.