CODA – this an acronym for Child Of Deaf Adults. This refers to any hearing child who has a Deaf parent or parents. CODAs may sign BSL as their first language, and their experiences growing up will be different to those of hearing children with hearing parents. CODAs may have a Deaf cultural identity alongside a hearing cultural identity, belonging to both the Deaf and hearing worlds.
Culturally Deaf – people who are culturally Deaf are sign language users who spend time with other Deaf individuals within the Deaf community, and who feel a link to Deaf history and shared Deaf values.
D/deaf – Deaf spelled with a capital D is related to people who have a strong Deaf cultural identity. They are usually native signers, or they have signed for many years. Deaf spelled with a lowercase d (deaf) can be related to people with acquired hearing loss, partial hearing loss or to deaf individuals who do not sign and who are not culturally deaf.
Deaf world – the cultural and social norms of the Deaf Community, where sign language or non-verbal communication is a mainstream form of communication and deafness is not a disability, but rather a normal physical variation, just like having blond hair or green eyes.
Hearing world – the cultural and social norms of hearing people, where verbal communication is normal and where deafness is often seen as a disability.
IBSL – an Ofqual recognised awarding body for qualifications in British Sign Language, Deafblind Awareness, and a non-university route into interpreting, which closed in 2023
Interpreter – an interpreter works between two languages spoken or signed in real time, to allow people to communicate when they use different languages. Examples might be someone interpreting between spoken English and British Sign Language, or British Sign Language and American Sign Language
Non-manual features – Signs with the hands are given meaning by body language, movement, facial expression, eye gaze and lip pattern. These elements of sign which are not hand movements are collectively known as ‘Non-manual features’.
Productive – productive skills are the skills related to producing sign language. These include hand shapes, facial expression, directional movement and lip-patterning.
Receptive – receptive skills are the skills related to understanding sign language produced by others.
Regional variation – just as spoken language has dialects and differences in words and phrases used by different groups, sign language also has different signs and phrases used in different areas. Think about a bread roll – depending on where you live, it could be called a cob, a barm, a batch, a roll, a bread cake etc. BSL is the same – one word may have multiple signs used by different areas.
Relay interpreter – a relay interpreter is a Deaf professional who works with a Deaf individual who has limited sign language skill, to help them to communicate through an interpreter to a hearing person. A relay interpreter works alongside a regular interpreter, and adapts and/or explains signs to help the Deaf person and the interpreter understand one another.
Signature – an Ofqual recognised awarding body for qualifications in British Sign Language, Deafblind Communication, Lipspeaking, and the non-university route into qualifications for Interpreting and Translation.
Sign languages – there are estimated to be over 300 sign languages in the world. Just like spoken language, many countries have their own sign language.
Translator – a translator converts written, digital and audio information from one language to another, such as English to British Sign Language.
