FSL researchers developed signs with linguistic and climate science expertsOml Center, through its project “Climate Resilience of the Deaf: Signs for Inclusive Governance and Development” or Project SIGND, has developed 42 new Filipino Sign Language (FSL) signs that convey climate change-related concepts.

Composed of Deaf and hearing staff alike, Project SIGND began the two-year process of lexicon development by identifying important terminology related to environmental phenomena and climate change, reviewing current literature, consulting experts and analyzing the communicative situation of the Deaf community.

The Deaf are one of the most vulnerable sectors in Philippine society. Theirs is a three-dimensional visual language, which has for a long time suffered from the lack of signs to convey climate concepts. Without these signs, they are prevented from understanding climate change and participating in conversations about it.

Project researchers collected over 6,000 signs from which 1,039 signs have the potential to represent 26 climate change concepts.

But there were also climate concepts with no signs existing in the Deaf community. For these, the all-Deaf FSL researchers of the team developed signs with the guidance of linguistic and climate science experts. The new signs and the signs collected from the field were presented to 10 panelists who were Deaf leaders from various organizations and regions across the country

The development of FSL signs is just the first step in teaching the Deaf about climate change, as well as ensuring that they are able to adapt to and keep safe from the realities of climate change. No longer will they be neglected nor be the last to be informed during emergencies. Rather than victims of disasters and beneficiaries of assistance, the Deaf are empowered to become agents of climate action.