Watch: Science in BSL with Audrey Cameron

Coming via STV News this is the story of a Deaf scientist from Scotland, who beat the barriers to obtain a BSc and then a PhD in chemistry, despite being given no communication support at university.

Audrey Cameron, for it is she, was also then told that because of her deafness she would never become a lecturer and then duly took the course and became a lecturer .. a very good lecturer as you can see on this video. A very rare full chemistry demonstration in sign language.

Audrey now teaches at Edinburgh University and is involved in a project to add scientific words to the BSL (British Sign Language) vocabulary with the BSL Glossary Team based in Edinburgh. As Audrey explains to STV, words like photosynthesis and organism don’t have widely recognised signs. A fact that can lead to guesswork and intense lipreading for Deaf students.

A similar project last year did the same for theatre signs and another one for physics and engineering signs – are there any other gaps in the BSL vocabulary that ought to be filled? What do you think?

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