Using a Language Community to Unlock the Abstractness of Signed Language
Temas
Detalles
Translating complex scientific words with abstract concepts from spoken/written language to American Sign Language (ASL) is challenging in the United States. Specifically, sign language users experience barriers to communicating these complex and abstract science ideas. Language development is also hindered by the small percentage of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) professionals in advanced STEM fields who have limited opportunities to use ASL to communicate their specialized knowledge with one another. A recent trend to address this issue is developing digital content on translating scientific terms into ASL vocabulary and storytelling (i.e., a vocabulary of a scientific term or person and a narrative on how science works), such as ASL Core, ASL Clear, and Atomic Hands. Still, not much is known about how the community adopts these new and unfamiliar signs that would help them better articulate scientific concepts through signed language. Moreover, academia and educated professionals act as gatekeepers in delivering new language production to the community without regard to their input on contextualizing the sophisticated and complex science concepts to their home and cultural experiences.