Enhancing Accessibility in Environmental and Applied Biological Sciences

In the evolving landscape of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), the inclusion of diverse voices is paramount to driving innovation and discovery.

This PNNL effort aims to create a robust visual database of American Sign Language (ASL) signs.

Specifically tailored to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (D/HH) scientists and their colleagues in the environmental and applied biological sciences, the Lab Signs@PNNL project seeks to address this by developing a comprehensive visual database of ASL signs for terms and concepts relevant to environmental and applied biological sciences. We have gathered some existing ASL signs related to environmental science, ecology, microbiology, and chemistry. We have also further identified and developed signs for scientific terms that currently lack ASL equivalents.

The Signs

Click the pages below to view a video demonstration of each sign, or watch them all in a YouTube playlist

This list will be expanded as additional signs are created and collected.

• Videos A-D
• Videos E-H
• Videos I-L
• Videos M-P
• Videos Q-T
• Videos U-Z

The signs have been created by Deaf users of ASL, in consultation with ASL linguistic experts. Some signs have multiple versions, representing different actions or meanings. For instance, there are two signs for "monitoring", depending on the context (human vs. instrument). These signs were developed keeping in mind context and application within these specific fields and are not meant to be prescriptive. We encourage ASL users to use some or all these signs in their current form, or even modify them as needed.

Our Team 

Kaizad Patel, Earth Scientist, PNNL (subject matter expert) 

Cooper Norris, Washington School for the Deaf (ASL sign generator) 

We are grateful to: 

• Dr. Annemarie Ross and Dr. Todd Pagano from Rochester Institute of Technology/National Technical Institute for the Deaf for valuable insights and discussions 
• Paula Meyer and Erin Griffin for providing ASL interpretation services