BSL Students

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British Sign Language (BSL)

What is a lip speaker?

What is a notetaker?

Deafblind interpreting

What is a Communication Support Worker?

What is a speech to text reporter?

What is a palantypist?

Deaf World/Culture

British Sign Language (BSL) is the sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language of deaf people in the UK; There are 125,000 deaf adults in the UK who use BSL plus an estimated 20,000 children. The language makes use of space and involves movement of the hands, body, face and head. Many thousands of people who are not deaf also use BSL, as hearing relatives of deaf people, sign language interpreters or as a result of other contact with the British deaf community.

What is a lip speaker? A lip speaker is a hearing person who has been professionally trained to be easy to lip read. Lip speakers reproduce clearly the shapes of the words and the natural rhythm and stress used by the speaker. They also use facial expression, gesture and; if requested, finger spelling, to aid the lip reader�s understanding.

What is a notetaker? There are two types of note taking for Deaf and hard of hearing students: manual and electronic. Both produce summary rather than detailed notes. A note taker is useful for a Deaf student who needs to watch a tutor, lip speaker or British Sign Language (BSL)/English Interpreter and therefore cannot take notes. They can also be used by someone who has limited lip-reading skills or who does not use BSL.

A manual note taker produces handwritten notes for the student in a structured format, showing the main points. The student can then adapt these notes later to suit their own style. An electronic note taker produces typed notes of the lecture or seminar using a laptop computer.

Deafblind interpreting Tactile signing is a common means of communication used by people with both a sight and hearing impairment, which is based on a standard system of Deaf manual signs.

Several methods of Deafblind communication may be referred to as Tactile signing, including:

Hand-over-hand (also known as 'hands-on signing'): The receiver�s hands are placed lightly upon the back of the hands of the signer to read the signs through touch and movement. The sign language used in hand-over-hand signing is often a slightly modified version of BSL; that is especially the case when used by people with Usher syndrome who may have first lost their hearing, and later their sight. The sign language used may also be a manually coded version of the local spoken language (such as Signed English), or a mid-way point between the two known as contact signing.
Tracking: The receiver holds the wrists of the signer to keep signs within field of vision and to gain information from the signer's movements. This is sometimes used when the receiver has a limited field of vision.
Tactile Fingerspelling (Deafblind Alphabet): Every word is spelled out using a manual alphabet. Different manual alphabets may be used, such as the one-handed ASL alphabet (the receiver places their hand over the back of the hand of the signer) or the two-handed manual alphabet, which is often used in a form adapted for deafblind communication, known as the Deafblind alphabet, in which letters are produced onto palm of the receiver's hand. This alphabet is also sometimes used in the USA even though the wider deaf community there use a one-handed alphabet. Other simple signs like a tap for 'yes' or a rubbing motion for 'no' may be included. In Japan, a system developed by a deafblind woman is in use to represent the five vowels and five major consonants of the Japanese language on the fingers, where the signer 'types' onto a table and the receiver places their hands on top to 'listen'.
Co-active signing: The sender moves and manipulates the hands and arms of the Deafblind person to form sign shapes, or fingerspelt words. This is often used with deafblind children to teach them signs, and with people with an intellectual disability.
On-body signing: The body of the person who is deafblind is used to complete the sign formation with another person. E.g.: chin, palm, chest. Often used with people who also have an intellectual disability.
Lorm: A hand-touch alphabet developed in the 19th century by Deafblind inventor and novelist Hieronymus Lorm and still used in Europe.
Tracing or 'print-on-palm': Tracing letters (or shapes) onto the palm or body of receiver. Capital letters produced in consistent ways are referred to as the 'block alphabet' or the 'spartan alphabet'.
Braille signing: Using six spots on the palm to represent the six dots of a braille cell. Alternatively, the signer may 'type' onto a table as if using a braille typewriter (see Perkins Brailler) and the receiver will place their hands on top. This method can have multiple receivers on top of each other; however a receiver sitting opposite will be reading the braille cell backwards.

What is a Communication Support Worker?

We use the term �deaf� throughout to refer to all types of deafness and hearing loss.

What does a CSW do?

CSWs mainly work within the education sector supporting deaf learners to communicate with their teachers and other students. CSWs are multi-skilled and flexible, using a variety of methods to suit each individual, whether it�s interpreting between spoken English and BSL, notetaking and/or lipspeaking. They work as part of the education team alongside the teacher and other professionals.

Typical duties of a CSW may include:

Applying appropriate communication methods, suitable to the needs and preferences of the student, to enable access to information and to facilitate two way communication.
Helping students understand and produce written material in class, reinforcing course content where appropriate.
Adapting learning materials to make language clearer for students.
Suggesting ways that the learning environment can be improved to make it easier for students to communicate.
Offering brief deaf awareness training to the teacher and other learners to facilitate the inclusion of the deaf student and ensure specific needs are met.

Qualified CSWs will hold Level 2 BSL at a minimum. If the student uses BSL or Signed English, you should use a CSW who has a minimum of CACDP Level 3 NVQ in BSL or Level 3 Certificate in BSL; ideally they should also be working towards Signature Level 6 NVQ Diploma in Sign Language Interpreting.

When not to use a CSW

Do not ask a CSW to act as a tutor, create handouts/information sheets or to discuss course content and projects outside of class.

If you are looking to use a CSW outside of the education sector, please bear in mind that they are not qualified interpreters. Qualified BSL/English Interpreters are highly skilled and experienced in BSL translation throughout a variety of settings such as Health, Employment, Training, Legal, Financial, Theatre, etc. In these circumstances a CSW may be unable to cope with the setting, speed or type of terminology being used. This may result in communication being inaccurately conveyed.

Tips for working with a CSW

In some situations CSWs may support students at break times with social communication, but it is important to remember that CSWs need regular breaks and should not be expected to work through breaks unless this is pre-arranged.
Send the CSW advance copies of any teaching materials in order for them to thoroughly prepare.
If you are talking to a student who is deaf, do it in your usual way � do not direct your question/comment to the CSW.
The CSW may ask you for clarification if they do not understand or, occasionally, if they cannot keep up with you.
The student may benefit if the same CSW is employed on a regular basis to enable consistency.

If you would like to book a CSW or another communication professional, please contact terptree on 01635 886 264 / 07944655810 SMS or interpreting@terptree.co.uk

What is a speech to text reporter? A Speech-to-Text Reporter (STTR) listens to what is being said and inputs it, word for word, onto an electronic shorthand keyboard which is linked to their laptop. Unlike a QWERTY keyboard not every letter in a word is pressed, but several keys will be pressed at once which represent whole words, phrases or shortforms. Specially designed software will then convert these phonetic chords back into English which can then be displayed for someone to read The text is displayed either on the screen of a laptop for a sole user, or projected onto a large screen or a series of plasma screens for a larger number of users. An STTR produces a verbatim account of what is said at speeds in excess of 200 words per minute and also gives extra information, such as {laughter}or {applause}, to keep the user informed of the mood of the hearing, meeting or conference. You can get more information on the palantype method and its history on the Simplified Spelling Website.

What is a palantypist? Verbatim (in exactly the same words; word for word: to repeat something verbatim) speech-to-text operators favoured by deaf people whose primary method of communication is English. Palantypists may be suitable for deaf people with clear speech.

Deaf World/Culture Deaf culture describes the social beliefs, behaviours, art, literary traditions, history, values and shared institutions of communities that are affected by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label, the word deaf is often written with a capital D, and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. When used as a label for the audio logical condition, it is written with a lower case d.

Members of the Deaf community tend to view deafness as a difference in human experience rather than a disability. The community may include family members of deaf people and sign-language interpreters who identify with Deaf culture and does not automatically include all people who are deaf or hard of hearing. According to Anna Mindess, "it is not the extent of hearing loss that defines a member of the Deaf community but the individual's own sense of identity and resultant actions." As with all social groups that a person chooses to belong to, a person is a member of the Deaf community if he or she "identifies him/herself as a member of the Deaf community, and other members accept that person as a part of the community."

Deaf culture is recognised under article 30, paragraph 4 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which states that "Persons with disabilities shall be entitled, on an equal basis with others, to recognition and support of their specific cultural and linguistic identity, including sign languages and deaf culture."

The above information has been taken from the following sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Sign_Language

www.lipspeaker.co.uk

Open University information on Support staff for deaf and hard of hearing students

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactile_signing

http://www.acsw.org.uk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speechtotextreporter

http://www.braintree.gov.uk iconnect info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_culture