When Liam Mcmulkin, who is deaf, began his studies at Scotland’s University of Dundee, he quickly realized there is something being missed not only in the program, but in British Sign Language in general: signs for science. As he began to study more complex topics and learned words such as phosphorylation or oxidation, the signs that were used to communicate the lessons often took up an inefficient amount of time because they had to be spelled out with each letter, he said.
Mcmulkin took it upon himself to . He created more than 100 new signs for scientific terms to help himself and future students using British Sign Language. Mcmulkin said creating each sign requires following the grammar structure, hand shape and movement of British Sign Language. Then each term has to be agreed upon by a forum of sign linguists, deaf people and deaf specialists. It took him about two months.
“Liam’s effort towards creating new signs is very important for the future of the life sciences,” Dr. Marios Stavridis, the head of the biological sciences at the University of Dundee and Mcmulkin’s supervisor, said in a statement, "if you imagine having to finger spell highly technical terms while sitting in a lecture or having a quick conversation with a colleague, you can appreciate how taxing and difficult it has been for Liam."
Mcmulkin, now in his third year at the school, hopes to continue his effort, and help more students as they make their way through complex science courses.
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