Banana Wilt – an important plant disease – is described here with British Sign Language, developed by the Scottish Sensory Centre at Edinburgh University.
#BritishSignLanguage #PlantHealth #Fusarium #DeafAwarenessWeek #ScienceCommunication
During Plant Health Week 2020, we had the pleasure of welcoming a team from the Scottish Sensory Centre (SSC) to present a webinar to BSPP members discussing how plants and microbes function in sign language (You can view more details of this webinar here). As part of this webinar a BSL-signed and animated video was created to describe the pathogen system Banana Fusarium Wilt.
Signed by Gary Quinn at Heriot-Watt University, voiceover by BSL/English interpreter Marion Fletcher and edited by Lauren Chappell at the University of Oxford this video highlights the importance of the sign-development process. New signs must adhere to the linguistic rules of BSL as well as describe the definition of the word or phrase they are representing.
If you are not familiar with BSL, try watching the video without the voiceover, can you identify any of the words or phrases Gary is signing?
This video is the first in a series to be created with the support of the BSPP in collaboration with the SSC to describe a range of plant-pathogen systems. These videos will be used for both deaf and hearing science communication events and will be available for all BSPP members to use in outreach projects.
Gary Quinn is an Assistant Professor of BSL linguistics and works as a lecturer and researcher at Heriot-Watt University. He is also studying part-time for a PhD.
BSL /English Interpreter: Marion Fletcher
Script & video editor: Lauren Chappell
To discover more, visit: http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/bsl/
