Glossary

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ASL Linguistic Markers(also: Non-Manual Markers, Non-Manual Signals, ASL Facial Grammar)

Facial expressions, head movements, and body postures that serve grammatical and semantic functions in American Sign Language and other sign languages, distinct from emotional facial expressions. Common ASL linguistic markers include MM (meaning effortlessly or regularly,…

American Sign Language(also: ASL, Ameslan)

A complete, natural language that uses hand movements, facial expressions, and body posture to convey meaning, serving as the primary language of many Deaf people in the United States and parts of Canada. ASL has its own grammar and syntax distinct from English and is not a…

Auslan(also: Australian Sign Language)

Australian Sign Language, the sign language of the Australian Deaf community. Auslan is a natural language with its own grammar and lexicon, unrelated to English and distinct from American Sign Language (ASL); it is historically related to British Sign Language and New Zealand…

Bicultural Identity(also: Biculturalism)

An identity characterised by active participation in and identification with two distinct cultural communities — in the Deaf context, navigating both Deaf culture (sign-language based, with its own norms, humour, and social practices) and the surrounding hearing culture.…

Bilingual-Bicultural Education(also: Bi-Bi Education, Bilingual Bicultural Education)

Bilingual-bicultural (Bi-Bi) education is an approach to Deaf education in which children learn in both a natural sign language (e.g., ASL, BSL, LSF, LGP) as a first language and the surrounding written/spoken language as a second language, while engaging substantively with both…

Black ASL(also: Black American Sign Language, BASL)

A distinct dialect of American Sign Language that developed within the Black Deaf community, shaped by the history of racial segregation in Deaf education in the United States. Black ASL has its own lexical, phonological, and syntactic features that distinguish it from other ASL…

CODA(also: Child of Deaf Adults, Children of Deaf Adults)

An acronym for Child of Deaf Adults, referring to a hearing person who was raised by one or more Deaf parents. CODAs typically grow up bilingual and bicultural, fluent in both a sign language and a spoken language, and often serve as cultural bridges between Deaf and hearing…

Cultural Appropriation(also: Cultural Misappropriation)

The adoption or use of elements from a minority culture by members of a dominant culture without proper understanding, acknowledgment, or respect for their original meaning and significance. In disability and accessibility contexts, this can occur when hearing researchers or…

Deaf Gain

A reframing concept that positions Deafness not as a loss (hearing loss) but as a gain — emphasizing the unique contributions, perspectives, and capabilities that Deaf individuals and Deaf culture bring to human diversity. Coined by H-Dirksen Bauman and Joseph Murray, Deaf Gain…

Deaf Music(also: Deaf musicality, Music in Deaf culture)

Music as experienced, created, and culturally interpreted by d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals and communities. Deaf music encompasses a multimodal, spatio-temporal engagement with rhythm, vibration, visual performance, song signing, and emotional resonance — often…

Deafhood

A concept introduced by Paddy Ladd that reframes Deaf identity as a process of becoming and self-actualization rather than a medical condition to be fixed. Deafhood emphasizes the possibilities and richness of Deaf experience, culture, and language, explicitly rejecting…

Gallaudet University

A federally chartered private university in Washington, D.C., and the only university in the world designed specifically for deaf and hard of hearing students, with all programs and services tailored to their needs. Founded in 1864 and named after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a…

Group Narrative(also: Collaborative Storytelling, Co-Signing Performance)

A collaborative storytelling activity deeply rooted in Deaf culture and communities where two or more signers jointly perform a story using sign language, often with exaggerated and creative expression. In a typical group narrative, one person stands in front handling non-manual…

Korean Sign Language(also: KSL, Suhwa)

The primary sign language of the Deaf community in South Korea, with its own grammar, vocabulary, and regional variation, and legally recognized as an official language of Korea under the Korean Sign Language Act of 2016. KSL is historically related to Japanese Sign Language due…

Language Immersion

An approach to language learning in which the learner is surrounded by and continuously exposed to the target language in natural, meaningful contexts rather than through isolated instruction. In the context of deaf education and accessibility, language immersion is critical…

Langue des Signes Québécoise(also: LSQ, Quebec Sign Language)

The sign language used by the Deaf community in francophone Quebec and in francophone Deaf communities elsewhere in Canada. LSQ is a distinct natural language with its own grammar, lexicon, and cultural tradition — not a signed version of French — and developed historically from…

Libras(also: Brazilian Sign Language, Língua Brasileira de Sinais)

The official sign language of the Deaf community in Brazil, recognized by Brazilian federal law (Law No. 10.436/2002) as a legitimate means of communication and expression. Libras has its own grammar, syntax, and linguistic structure distinct from spoken Brazilian Portuguese. It…

Linguistic Imperialism(also: Language Imperialism)

The imposition of one language or language modality over others, often by dominant groups over minority language communities. In deaf contexts, linguistic imperialism manifests when spoken language is privileged over sign language, such as forcing deaf individuals to use…

Linguistic Minority(also: Language Minority)

A group whose primary language differs from the dominant language of the surrounding society, often placing them at a disadvantage in education, employment, civic participation, and access to information. Deaf sign language users are frequently described as a linguistic and…

Milan Congress(also: Milan Congress of 1880, Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf)

The Milan Congress was an international conference on the education of Deaf children held in Milan in 1880, where hearing educators voted to ban sign language from Deaf schools and impose oralism, the exclusive use of speech and lip-reading, as the standard pedagogy. The…

Native Signer(also: Native Sign Language User, L1 Signer)

A person who acquired a sign language as their first language (L1) during the critical period of language development, typically before age 5. Native signers usually learned sign language from deaf parents or through early immersion in deaf education environments. In…

Oralism(also: Oral Method, Oral Education)

An educational philosophy and approach for deaf and hard of hearing individuals that emphasizes spoken language and lip-reading over the use of sign language. Historically, oralism dominated deaf education following the 1880 Milan Conference, which effectively banned sign…

Prelingual Deafness(also: Prelingually Deaf, Congenital Deafness)

Deafness present at birth or acquired before a child has developed spoken language, typically before around age three. Prelingually deaf individuals commonly learn a signed language as a first language and may have different literacy trajectories in the surrounding…

Regional Sign Variation(also: Sign Language Dialect, Regional Sign Dialect)

Regional sign variation refers to systematic differences in the form of signs across geographic regions within a single sign language, analogous to dialects in spoken languages. Variation arises from local Deaf school traditions, contact between communities, and historical…

Shared Visual Attention(also: Collective Visual Attention, Visual Joint Attention)

A core feature of Deaf-centred interaction in which all participants coordinate their gaze, body orientation, and signing space so everyone can see the current signer, referenced content, and each other. Shared visual attention is foundational to Deaf pedagogy and DeafSpace…

Sign Language Writing System(also: Sign Language Script, Sign Language Notation, Sign Language Character System)

A system of symbols or characters designed to represent sign language in written form. Unlike spoken languages, which have well-established writing systems, sign languages generally lack a standard written form — meaning the approximately 70 million people worldwide who use sign…

Sign Name(also: ASL name sign, Name sign)

A unique sign in American Sign Language (or another signed language) used to uniquely identify an individual person or, in some proposals, an object or device, in place of fingerspelling their English name. Sign names are culturally significant in Deaf communities and are…

Signed Chinese(also: Manually Coded Chinese, Wenfa Shouyu)

A manually coded signing system that imposes the grammar and word order of written/spoken Mandarin Chinese onto signs, analogous to Signed Exact English in anglophone contexts. Signed Chinese is commonly used in official Chinese television news interpretation and in deaf…

Song Signing(also: Signed Song, Sign-Singing, Song Sign)

A performative art form in which song lyrics are interpreted in a sign language (most commonly ASL) alongside body movement, facial expression, rhythm, and spatial use, so that the performer simultaneously conveys linguistic meaning and musical qualities such as tempo, dynamics,…

Stokoe Notation(also: Stokoe System)

A notational system for representing the formational components of sign language signs, devised by William C. Stokoe for the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. The system analyzes each sign into three parameters: location (where the sign is…

Translated Deaf Self

A concept coined by Alys Young, Jemina Napier, and Rosemary Oram describing how deaf signers' lifelong experiences of being encountered, represented, and inter-subjectively known by others occur in a translated form. The term captures the ontological consequences of routine…

Visual Vernacular(also: VV)

A deeply visual sign language performance art form rooted in visual storytelling, developed in the 1970s by deaf American actor Bernard Bragg and widely practiced internationally. Visual Vernacular combines gesture, facial expression, classifiers, body movement, and cinematic…

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