Learning British Sign Language: A Meaningful Gesture
Introduction
In my years as a software engineer at the FT, the organisation has taken an increasingly proactive approach to improving its diversity and inclusivity, setting itself aspirational goals to advance the culture and broaden its representation of talent.
As a hearing person, I was naively oblivious to all the invisible work that my Deaf software engineer colleagues do in addition to their terms of contract.
What follows is based on my personal learning experiences and it is worth stating that I am by no means an authority on these complex subjects and if I have made any mistakes then I will always try to grow from them.
The challenge presented by the small/absent intersection of a shared language between Deaf and hearing teammates makes BSL (British Sign Language) interpreters integral facilitators of workplace communication. Arranging their attendance entails a substantial amount of work for the Deaf engineer, including:
- applying for and budgeting of Access to Work governmental grant
- coordination of schedules
- provisioning of interpreters’ access to necessary tools and services
- onboarding and training of interpreters in organisation-specific jargon
- timely sign-off and processing of invoices to ensure interpreters are paid
It is not unusual to employ multiple interpreters, which increases this workload further. It is also vital to find interpreters who are equipped with the appropriate technical vocabulary and can serve the specific accessibility needs of the individual (e.g. one of the FT’s engineers is Deafblind).
With all that done, the day’s work can finally begin…! The notion of this communicative labour required to collaborate effectively with your colleagues is inherently unfair and the FT readily acknowledges that the necessity of this work means it must fall within contracted hours. It has also made arrangements to pay interpreters directly (and is reimbursed from the grant subsequently), abating that particular burden.
However, the grant is not sufficient to cover a full working week of interpreter costs, resulting in a portion of the time without this key service. This issue is by no means unique to the FT, though diversity without inclusion is superficial and unsustainable, and we cannot consider ourselves inclusive while not making any personal effort of adapting to support our colleagues’ needs.
Within the Product & Technology department, it felt like we had the right attitude to try and improve this situation, if only in a small way. There was certainly the appetite to learn: a couple of our Deaf colleagues generously hosted BSL sessions and created video references of tech-specific signs, which enabled some basic workplace conversations and stimulated people’s interest to take it further. However, in this scenario the burden of work still remained unfairly on them.
After popular demand from those wanting to learn, the FT’s Learning & Development team arranged a formal course which ended with the class of roughly a dozen taking the BSL 101 examination.
Each One Teach One
From the course and exam, attendees achieved a level of competence and confidence in their BSL that they felt would be worth sharing further within the department. A group was formed to run informal sessions designed to raise awareness of Deaf culture and conduct participatory learning of the BSL alphabet and some basic signs, with the intention of bridging the inclusivity gap at the FT. (It was made clear that the sessions were not run by qualified teachers but rather people simply wanting to pass on what they had learned.)
The sessions covered a wide range of topics:
BSL alphabet
Knowing how to fingerspell your ABCs and sign ‘sign what?’ allows you to ask for the sign of anything and so build your vocabulary through conversation, e.g. ‘A-P-P-L-E sign what?’
Syntax
BSL’s syntax differs to that from spoken English, as demonstrated in the above example where the sign for the question (‘what’) comes at the end of the sentence.
Sign names
In BSL, sign names represent an aspect of your character and are generally given to you by others, and almost certainly won’t be the name you were expecting… See this article for more.
Clockwise from top-left:
- James: ‘cheeky’ — get to know him and and you’ll know why
- Behnaz: ‘excited’ — her perennial state
- Nadia: ‘sweet’ — her go-to expression of affirmation
- Andy: ‘James Bond’ — we’re all allowed to dream…
- Estefanía: ‘flower ear’ — her tattoo and its whereabouts
- Mo: ‘stirring the s***’ — attributed by James (in the nicest possible way of course, and now you know how James got his sign name)
Difference between Deaf (with a capital D) and deaf (with a lowercase d)
- Deaf: Someone who regards their deafness as a core part of their identity and not necessarily as a disability but rather as a different way of experiencing the world. They may use sign language as their primary mode of communication and identify strongly with the Deaf culture and community.
- deaf: Relates to the physical condition of hearing loss though does not necessarily include the culture and community aspects associated with Deaf culture.
- And a spectrum of identities that exist between these two definitions.
BSL as a first or preferred language
For many Deaf people, BSL is their first or preferred language, which conveys an important distinction: many were initially taught English and only after their critical language development period were they then introduced to BSL, which they found to be more accessible. This issue of language deprivation is substantial and warrants its own discussion.
Regional variations
As well as countries across the world having their own sign language, regions within the UK may use different signs for certain words, much in the same way as spoken regional dialects.
Pointing
In BSL this is not considered rude: it’s a means of identifying who is being referred to in a conversation.
Mouth patterns
It is important to use mouth patterns (i.e. mouth the word soundlessly) to clarify some signs, e.g. ‘Mac’ and ‘apple’ use the same sign handshape but can be differentiated by the mouth pattern.
Facial expressions
Adds nuance to what you are signing, just as the tone of voice in speech does.
Lighting and visibility
It is important that your gestures, mouth patterns, and facial expressions can be read, so make sure you are well lit and fully visible when signing.
Interpreter
Eye contact is maintained with the Deaf/deaf person with whom you are conversing whilst listening to the interpreter.
Taking It Further
Since its beginnings in 2019, the group of presenters has grown and we have conducted over 30 sessions, increasing their scope to cover conversational BSL on everyday topics: numbers and time; likes and dislikes; activities, weather, and feelings; and transport and places. The sessions have been attended by the most senior leaders of the department, and we have since opened the invitation to attendees across the entire organisation.
Most recently, in conjunction with the 2023 World Day for Cultural Diversity, we shared signs to describe cultural events observed by the presenters: Lunar New Year, Yalda Night, Día de los Muertos, and Ramadan.
Outside the sessions we produced recordings of their content and made them available on Thrive, the FT’s learning platform; applied a Slack integration to look up BSL signs; and, in conjunction with Deaf Awareness Week, created illustrations to be used in Slack profiles to demonstrate sign names (like those above).
Conclusion
What we have achieved is by no means a silver bullet to this larger issue which naturally requires a larger solution: essentially that everyone learns a new language, likely from scratch, and which is a visual one with its own set of rules distinct from any spoken/written language — no small feat.
My two cents is based on studies that suggest babies can express themselves through sign long before they can with speech, and that this nascent availability could be taught as standard in the education system alongside writing and speech. With 1 in 6 of the UK adult population affected by some form of hearing loss it seems counter-intuitive not to have a common visual language.
Furthermore, in the domain of technology the vocabulary evolves as fast as the technology itself. This was highlighted by the work done by an FT Senior Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Engineer who, in collaboration with Edinburgh & Heriot-Watt Universities, devised a multitude of new signs for Data Science terms, of which he recorded ~300 videos, e.g. here is the sign for data manipulation. Their purpose is to be used in training to produce highly qualified technology interpreters.
The natural assumption, especially so for a Product & Technology department, would be why not embrace the latest developments in assistive technology? It’s impossible to deny how the likes of auto-transcribing is breaking down barriers of communication, though it is still far from being an equivalent: it requires the Deaf party to read English (not necessarily their first or preferred language) and removes the immediacy of the conversation as well as nuances conveyed through more subtle gestures and expressions.
In this regard I am of the same opinion as Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park:
Volunteer #1: This new program’s incredible. A few more years’ development and we won’t even have to d̶i̶g̶ learn how to sign anymore.
Dr. Alan Grant: Where’s the fun in that?
Learning BSL has rewarded us with insights into a different culture and a new perspective that we would otherwise not have attained.
When surveyed, attendees of the sessions expressed a high confidence in using the learned signs in conversation, which increased as a result. As with any language, learning BSL benefits from exposure, repetition, and making many (many) mistakes, and our Deaf colleagues have been generously patient in letting us practise.
In time and with continued effort we aim to improve our collective signing ability and increase the number of BSL learners in the department, and so make the FT an increasingly inclusive place to work.
These have been my personal reflections on learning about BSL and Deaf culture. For authoritative resources I can suggest:
- British Sign Language (BSL) report 2022 — UK Government report following the introduction of the British Sign Language Act 2022 to legally recognise BSL as a language in England, Scotland, and Wales
- British Deaf Association — the UK’s leading membership organisation and registered charity led by Deaf people, for Deaf people
- World Federation of the Deaf — The World Federation of the Deaf is a global organisation working to ensure equal rights for 70 million people around the globe.
