Experts at Edinburgh have helped created a glossary of environmental terms to make climate science and biodiversity research more accessible to deaf people.

University researchers worked with the Royal Society to develop the British Sign Language (BSL) lexicon, which includes terms such as ‘carbon footprint’, ‘greenhouse gases’ and ‘rewilding’.

Videos demonstrating the 200 new signs can now be accessed online. All of them are technical terms that did not previously have a standardised gesture in BSL.

The glossary project, which involves the Scottish Sensory Centre (SSC) at Edinburgh, is themed around biodiversity, ecosystems, the physical environment and pollution.

Based in Moray House School of Education and Sport, SSC has hosted the British Sign Language Glossary of curriculum terms since 2007. The resource is widely used by teachers of deaf children, deaf young people, their support workers and parents.

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