International project to present comparative list of astronomical words in sign languages

The IAU Commission for Astronomy, Equity and Inclusion recently started an international long-term project to collect different signs of the most common words in astronomy education in German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Polish and others.

As many astronomical words have no same hand sign in any sign language, the commission has created a list of suggested signs with the help of deaf communities, educators, and astronomers all over the world.

The idea is to involve deaf people to use these suggested signs during scientific discussions.

The Commission also plans to study and suggest a common and unique sign for each word for every country.