Deaf News: Project to research BSL signs for business jargon

The origins of BSL may date back to the sixteenth century, but in the Britain of 2018 there are precious few signs to interpret the world of work.

Deaf Business Academy (DBA) already knew business jargon was an area of difficulty for Deaf entrepreneurs, and responded with a project in January of this year.

“We carried out a survey last year, and found the problem to be greater than we’d thought,” explains director Dionne Thomas.  

Perhaps surprisingly, she adds, few standard BSL signs accurately reflect business jargon, terminology or technical language.

While some signs used are borrowed from standard BSL, these are linguistically incorrect and don’t always reflect a word’s true meaning within a business context.

“Cloud computing, for example, signs as cloud and computer, but obviously there are no computers in the sky, so this sign is not appropriate for business settings. Yes there is an official BSL dictionary but I think it was done in 1998 and I don’t think it’s been updated recently to include any business terminology. There are so many corporate terms which simply don’t have a BSL equivalent. This leaves Deaf signers at a considerable disadvantage as they don’t have the same access to specialist language, and the means to understand it contextually, as hearing entrepreneurs do.

“There are no business terms in it. Yet the UK has a separate Business English dictionary, which is why this project exists.”

At the same time, there is also an issue of multiple sign use for a range of different words, which can cause huge confusion for interpreters.

The sign for enterprise, for instance, is also used for foundation, basic, start-up, entrepreneur, founder and landing page.

“There simply aren’t enough accurate BSL signs to reflect the complexity and variation of modern business English,” Dionne continues.

But it’s a problem DBA is determined to solve, with a new project launched this year across a number of stages.

The first step, now almost complete, is to collect existing signs from deaf business professionals across five categories of business terms, including general, business concepts, marketing and sales, digital and technology, and finance and accounting. The Business Signs Glossary now includes more than 200 business terms.

“This is where we discovered the problems outlined above,” adds Thomas.

The second stage is set to work alongside university linguistic teams, sign language teachers and deaf business professionals to research and assess existing signs to determine their accuracy and appropriateness for the business sector.

Relevant signs have been gathered here: http://www.deafbusinesstraining.co.uk/business-signs-glossary

“The resource is designed as a learning tool for deaf adults and young people, BSL teachers, interpreters, CSWs and the whole community. We’re keeping this project as democratic and open as possible – we want to upskill our community with language skills to enable better business, promotion to managerial positions and a higher standard of activity in the workplace. This started as my pet translation project but has since really grown legs and attracted national interest.”

The final stage is to train deaf people to become DBA Deaf Enterprise Champions, who will be in the frontline to engage, train and support people into business and self-employment.

Thomas stresses: “We‘re keen to get this specialist business terminology nailed down and in the BSL lexicon. And a number of universities, BSL teachers and deaf business professionals have already signalled their support.

“We’re work on a basis of ‘agreed’ signs – if we all agree that’s how something is signed, so be it, it’s confirmed.”

The rest of the project is due to unfold in the months ahead.

By Juliet England.