The geosciences have a steep language learning curve. Diving into a subfield requires learning jargon to describe a bevy of abstract concepts, niche meanings of otherwise familiar terms, and specialized laboratory and field equipment.
For Deaf geoscientists who primarily use American Sign Language (ASL), that learning curve is made even steeper by the fact that many scientific terms don’t have ASL counterparts.
When Caroline Solomon was working toward her doctorate more than 2 decades ago, she didn’t know any other deaf oceanographers.
In the classroom, in the lab, and out in the field researching biogeochemistry in Maryland’s estuaries, “I was making up signs ad hoc for my field, you know, phytoplankton, dinoflagellates, diatoms, and so forth,” Solomon signed. “I was just making them up as I went.”
Years later, she finally met another deaf aquatic scientist. As the two shared their research, Solomon realized that they had developed some of the same signs completely independent of each other.
“It was really fascinating, because the way we sign is dependent on the concept we’re expressing,” Solomon said. She realized that “we’re talking about these concepts, we’re conceiving of them, in similar ways. I think that was the first ‘Aha!’ moment for me.”
That encounter emphasized to her the need for Deaf geoscientists to share the ASL signs they had created for themselves and to standardize them so that other scientists, students, and interpreters could use them.
In the years since, “I’ve really seen the number of Deaf scientists increase, which is really wonderful to see,” said Solomon, now an estuary biogeochemist, biology professor, and dean of the faculty at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.
A Note About Terminology
Following best practices established by the Deaf community, all sources were asked whether and how they preferred to be identified with respect to deafness and the Deaf community and with identity-first or person-first language. Unless otherwise requested by a source, this article uses lowercase “deaf” to refer to a person’s audiological status and uppercase “Deaf” to refer to members of the community, some of whom are hearing friends, family, and allies. The way a source communicated is specified upon first reference; “said” or something similar is used thereafter.
In addition to their academic contributions, those scientists have worked hard to expand ASL dictionaries to include geoscience-related terms and standardize their use in classrooms and labs. Deaf scientists’ work to literally redefine the language of geoscience is helping remove barriers to education and make science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) more accessible to everyone.
“When we focus on developing signs that can convey the entire picture, it gives deaf scientists and future deaf scientists a language with which they can begin to navigate the science and STEM world,” signed Cooper Norris, a Deaf scientist and former environmental laboratory technician at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Wash. “And then it helps our hearing colleagues to be able to communicate better with us as well.”
Both a Word and an Idea
Signs don’t just represent a spoken word but also seek to describe the word’s meaning. For example, one ASL sign for “electron” involves the left hand making a fist in front of the chest while the right hand, signing the letter E, circles the left. The sign represents the movement of the electron (right hand) outside the nucleus (left hand).
Sign language’s capacity to convey a complex or abstract concept succinctly with a few gestures, called iconicity, makes it well suited for teaching scientific jargon, particularly in the geosciences, where many of the processes at play can be hard to conceptualize, explained Richard Ladner, an emeritus professor of computer science at the University of Washington in Seattle and a child of Deaf adults.
“This descriptive quality of sign language is unique and doesn’t exist for most languages, not completely. Certain sounds are descriptive. Onomatopoeia, we call it. In sign language, it’s much richer.”
“This descriptive quality of sign language is unique and doesn’t exist for most languages, not completely,” Ladner said. “Certain sounds are descriptive. Onomatopoeia, we call it. In sign language, it’s much richer.”
Historically, though, ASL dictionaries have lacked more than a handful of STEM-related words, requiring Deaf students and researchers either to fingerspell field-specific jargon or to invent their own signs for personal use.
“When you don’t know the sign or if there is no sign, you have to fingerspell it,” signed Annemarie Ross, an associate professor of chemistry at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in New York. Just like writing out a new word on a blackboard, “fingerspelling works if you’re trying to learn the word, but it doesn’t teach the concept, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the concept,” said Ross, who is Deaf.
In a classroom, fingerspelling every instance of a science word can be cumbersome and physically demanding.
“You can imagine you’re teaching a class and the word ‘chromatography’ or ‘spectroscopy’ comes up,” said Todd Pagano, a chemistry professor at NTID. “As you can imagine, spelling ‘spectroscopy’ or ‘chromatography’ 50 times in a single class period takes a lot of time.”
Pagano, who uses ASL in his classes, often works with his students to create signs for classroom use. Not only does the process streamline his teaching and his students’ learning, he said, “it helps students who may be native signers to teach something to their professor, take ownership of their learning, and at the same time show that they understand the concept.”
“Signs can convey the concept directly without going through a second language, such as English,” Michele Cooke, a Deaf structural geologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wrote via email.
“For example, the sign for ‘strike-slip fault’ efficiently conveys the sense of movement of this kind of fault, takes a fraction of the time needed for spelling ‘strike-slip,’ and allows the recipient to directly connect the sign to the concept without the extra cognitive layer of using the English word ‘strike-slip,’” Cooke said.
What’s more, not all native signers speak the same language. ASL, mainly used in the United States and Canada, is just one of more than 300 sign languages in use around the world. When users create an ASL sign, it needs to follow ASL rules for grammar and the “five parameters”: handshape, palm orientation, movement, location, and facial expression/nonmanual signals. A sign must also gain acceptance by widespread usage in the Deaf community—if the community doesn’t like it, the sign can be lost as a common term.
Although English is often considered the international language of science, other English-speaking countries like the United Kingdom have their own sign languages, as do countries and cultures in which English is not the primary spoken language. Iconicity circumvents some of the variations between different sign languages and facilitates science communication within the international Deaf community.
Limited Usefulness of Ad Hoc Signs
Many newer ASL signs in the geosciences have come about organically as individual scientists realized that they needed them for their own research or classrooms, like Solomon did with “phytoplankton” and “dinoflagellates.”
On a field trip with deaf high school teachers and educators, Cooke recognized the need for a sign for “outcrop” to streamline communication. “We agreed that signing ‘out’ and ‘crop’ doesn’t convey the meaning and creates confusion,” she said. “So we came up with a sign that is the equivalent of ‘rock’ and ‘look at it’ for ‘outcrop.’”
Norris, who was a postbaccalaureate in a soil biogeochemistry lab at PNNL after studying at NTID, said that ASL’s science vocabulary can be even more limited in a laboratory setting. The nomenclature of specialized instruments and analysis techniques isn’t frequently taught in introductory geoscience classes, including those at NTID, Norris recalled. When he joined his new lab, “I realized all the experiences and the signs that I would need to learn. Developing those signs within the lab became a process, but it became a process that is rewarding,” he said.
For example, his research required him to use a Shimadzu carbon analyzer, which has a component that spins like a carousel. Kaizad Patel, an Earth scientist and Norris’s mentor at PNNL, said that after so many times fingerspelling “Shimadzu” or simply pointing to the device, the lab group decided to create a sign to represent that machine.
“You spell out a word so often that you’re like, ‘OK, enough of this. We just need something to express what we’re talking about,’” Patel said. Their sign includes a movement that mimics the carousel-like function of the machine. Using the sign increased the team’s efficiency and cut down on confusion.
Signs like “Shimadzu” are very niche, but even the more general geoscience-related signs might have limited effectiveness outside their originally intended setting. Like family nicknames or personal variations on signs, “home signs” or “lab signs” might be understood only by those who created them or use them.
“If your whole lab knows that sign,” Pagano said, “it’s OK to use that when you’re in that lab. But outside of that lab, the sign hasn’t necessarily been standardized or disseminated or known.” Other Deaf professionals and interpreters might not know that sign, or it might mean something else in another context.
The “Shimadzu” sign “might not work as well [in another lab] where you have other instruments that spin like a carousel,” Patel said.
Explore More
- ASLSTEM Forum and Dictionary
- ASLCORE Dictionary
- Atomic Hands, Deaf STEM communications and networking
- Lab Signs @ PNNL
- Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science by Harry G. Lang, ISBN 0897893689
- STEM Sign Language Summit
That potential for miscommunication can create additional barriers when deaf scientists attend professional events, like conferences and workshops, designed by and for hearing people.
“When I tried using ASL interpreters at conferences, I found that missed too much of the science,” Cooke said. “Conference presenters speak quickly, and when the interpreters have to fingerspell (and guess the spelling of words they don’t know), they can’t keep up, so they skip things.” In other cases, an interpreter might hear a word that has multiple meanings (as much science jargon does) and use the wrong sign for that context, causing confusion or an unneeded delay in understanding.
“If I went to a conference in a different town using different interpreters, each time I had to teach them my signs that I had developed for my own career,” Solomon said. “If a hearing person goes to a conference, they can simply access the presentation.” Oftentimes, deaf scientists who present their research in ASL at a conference have to alter or slow down their natural signing style so that interpreters can keep up.
“I have spent hours preparing interpreters, teaching interpreters, the science and the content,” Solomon said. “That’s a lot of invisible labor involved.”
Standardizing and Increasing Access
“There are very few deaf geoscientists, but with better access to geoscience signs, maybe we can see geosciences become more diverse.”
The added burdens and extra work that go into navigating spaces designed for hearing people—classrooms, labs, field camps, conferences—underscore the need deaf geoscientists have for standardized and, most important, documented signs. For decades, scientist members of the Deaf community have worked to shore up the language gap by collating their science signs into STEM-specific ASL dictionaries. What started as printed pamphlets with sequences of hand gestures and arrows showing movements has evolved into massive online video dictionaries that help people find the signs they need.
“There are very few deaf geoscientists, but with better access to geoscience signs, maybe we can see geosciences become more diverse,” Cooke said.
ASL STEM, a community forum and video dictionary of more than 3,200 STEM signs hosted by the University of Washington, is one of the largest efforts to document and share science signs.
“It’s a public place where people can put signs up for science,” said Ladner, who cofounded ASL STEM.
ASL STEM has no entry for “geology” or “geoscience” (“geology” can be found elsewhere). Users have submitted signs for natural science, Earth and space sciences, and atmospheric sciences, but most of the entries are related to medicine, engineering, and technology.
ASL “is like any language,” Ladner said. “New terms come into languages all the time. It’s based on need; it’s based on efficiency.”
Anyone can submit a sign to ASL STEM for consideration, but there’s no guarantee that the sign has strong iconicity or that it follows ASL’s grammar. But because the project is community driven, users can submit signs they see a need for or regularly use, and entries include niche terms like “bacteriophage,” “fieldwork,” and even many of Solomon’s original marine biology signs.
ASLCORE, hosted by NTID, is another effort to document signs specific to professional fields. New signs are developed solely by Deaf users of ASL and go through a rigorous vetting process before being added to ASLCORE.
“It’s really important that it’s really led by the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community,” said Pagano. He explained that most of ASLCORE’s science entries are related to biology, chemistry, and physics for the simple reason that many of the scientists who have worked on the project, himself included, are biologists, chemists, or physicists.
“It’s built upon a team of experts,” said Pagano. “You have an expert in the discipline, for example, chemistry or geoscience, to make sure that the meaning of the sign is correct and make sure everyone understands the meaning. You have ASL linguistics experts. You have Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who are working in the field who use the signs. For ASLCORE, we also have interpreters who specifically interpret in that field.”
Recently, ASLCORE developed a group of “sustainability” signs under a National Science Foundation grant. Ross, who was on the sustainability sign development team, explained that it was a difficult task because “sustainability” can mean different things to different groups of people. It could mean reducing fossil fuel usage or conserving natural resources or protecting Earth.
“The lack of geoscience signs isn’t due to a lack of need.”
“Sustainability is one of the most complex ideas you can develop a sign for,” Ross said. After much discussion, the team agreed on a three-part sign that conveys the idea of preserving Earth’s natural resources by combining signs for environment, replacement of resources, and stability.
A three-gesture sign requires more practice to get right, Ross admitted, but the team felt that the complexity would help convey a fuller definition of the term. The group also developed simpler variations of “sustainability” for day-to-day use, as well as 59 other multipart signs for related terms like “air pollution,” “climate change,” “geospatial analysis,” and “water security.” These terms are arguably related to the geosciences even if they are not categorized as such.
“The lack of geoscience signs isn’t due to a lack of need,” Pagano said. Deaf geoscientists have existed for as long as people have studied geoscience. “It’s really just that the field needs more scientists to develop and disseminate the signs.”
Some, like Norris and Patel, have created subfield-specific dictionaries—in their case, environmental and applied biological sciences. They collaborated with members of the ASLCORE team to ensure that their signs for instruments, lab processes, and jargon met ASL’s grammar and iconicity standards.
“In the geosciences, there isn’t much out there,” Patel said, “so we’re trying to fill that niche.”
“There’s still a lack of access for our community,” Norris added, “and the number of deaf students and deaf scientists out there [is small] because of the lack of access. If we can create more resources like this, we will hopefully see more students coming into our field.”
Deaf-Led Progress
Linguistic Colonialism
Efforts pushed by outsiders to cohere and standardize languages, including signed languages, can be a form of colonization that suppresses cultural identity and limits discourse. Around the world, Indigenous Hand Talk and other Indigenous languages remain under threat of extinction as a result of atrocities endured by Indigenous peoples, including forced relocation and cultural assimilation. Learn more about linguistic colonialism.
Some signed languages, like British Sign Language, already have robust science dictionaries. Indigenous Hand Talk, such as Plains Indian Sign Language and Inuit Sign Language, describes the natural world with vocabulary that predates both ASL and the colonization of North America. These languages could help braid Indigenous Knowledges and Western science together, also helping to decolonize the geosciences.
Other sign languages, like ASL, Mexican Sign Language, and Indian Sign Language, are still growing their science vocabulary. The increased awareness that ASL sometimes lacks the vocabulary for science has been both a boon and a cause for concern, Solomon said.
“There was this great excitement that everybody was coming up with these signs and developing them, but it got to the point where it felt like anyone was developing these,” Solomon said. She saw an increasing number of grants that included a promise to develop new signs in their broader impact statement, and it worried her.
“Where are the standards for this development?” she asked. “Where are the values that underlie this process? What are the ethical implications here? And where are the linguistic principles in these signs? Who gets to develop them? Who owns them?”
And when the grant money runs out, who will pay to keep the dictionaries going?
“It’s a learning process for everybody, including myself as a Deaf person. Hearing people are also on that learning journey.”
The efforts to create science signs for ASL must be led and owned by Deaf users of the language, Solomon said. Alongside the development of new signs must be a push for standardization of science signs, she said, and that push needs to be led by the Deaf community.
Many more ASL dictionaries with science signs, including some geoscience-specific ones, exist now than several decades ago. But not knowing which dictionary, if any, has the sign you need is yet another barrier to overcome. The next step, Norris said, should be centralization.
“In the future,” he said, “it would be nice to see more of them compiled into one place to help our community thrive.”
“It’s a learning process for everybody, including myself as a Deaf person,” Norris added. “Hearing people are also on that learning journey. We’re all trying to break down barriers.”
—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@AstroKimCartier), Staff Writer