Since the vocabularies of STEM disciplines are often not used in the common vernacular of the ASL community, interpreters, teachers and tutors are forced to create technical signs for these words or concepts ad hoc, which may result in signs that lack both semantic accuracy and specificity. In educational settings, these technical signs may also be different from one course to the next, and from one instructor to the next. For the deaf or hard-of-hearing student, this is extremely problematic and interferes with the acquisition of knowledge.

To address these concerns DeafTEC, with the support of a gift from The Dow Chemical Company, has developed this STEM ASL Dictionary under the stewardship of Geoff Poor, Professor of American Sign Language (ASL) at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in Rochester, NY. In the video to the right, Geoff explains the purpose of the dictionary, how it was created, how it works, and who it is for.

Please note that, like all dictionaries, this is a work in progress. It is a start but is not exhaustive. We invite you to email suggestions for additional terms and other improvements to aslstem@rit.edu.

This project has been funded in part by The Dow Chemical Company.

Credits

Project Director: Geoffrey S. Poor

Information Technology Team: 

Geoffrey S. Poor, Raja Kushalnagar, Dale Moore, with contributions from Noella Kolash

Videography: Donald Feigel
Programming and Web Development: Matt Dana
ASL Models: Marguerite Carrillo, Kristi Love, Amyjade Johnson

Lab Sciences Team:

Geoffrey S. Poor, Camille Ouellette, and Tammi Mascioletti, with contributions from Jeff Shaul

Videography: Donald Feigel
Programming and Web Development: Matt Dana and Rich Kenyon
ASL Models: Tammi Mascioletti and Jason Listman

Mathematics Team:

Geoffrey S. Poor, Keith Mousley, Alanna Palardy, and Emily Sidansky

Videography: Ander Kazmerski
Programming and Web Development: Matt Dana and Rich Kenyon
ASL Models: Gary Blatto-Vallee and Amyjade Johnson

Special thanks to the following for their important contributions:

Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind
St. Petersburg (FL) College
Texas School for the Deaf
Austin (TX) Community College
California School for the Deaf Riverside
Ohlone (CA) College