This document discusses the challenges of conducting multilingual research that incorporates both English and British Sign Language (BSL). It describes a case study of the author's doctoral research involving deaf participants. Key issues discussed include designing a consent form that is accessible in both written English and BSL, and the lack of appropriate technology and support within the university for working with video and visual media. The author notes that while fields like African American studies are well-supported, deaf studies must "pull itself up by the bootstraps" due to less recognition and resources.

1. “NO, THIS ISN’T THE DATA
ANALYSIS; THIS IS JUST THE
CONSENT FORM….”
Researching in two languages and two modalities
Kyra Pollitt, University of Bristol

2. A little wafer-thin (after dinner)mint…
 British Sign Language  English
 NOT English  NOT a powerless
 NOT universal language
 NOT an invented code  IS globally recognised
 IS a natural language  HAS a globally
 DOES reflect a culture dominant orthographic
form
 IS a minority language
 DOES NOT have an
orthographic form

3. Two languages, many issues….
BSL English
 Powerless  Powerful
 Disabled  Normal
 Little linguistic  Globally recognised
recognition  Large (printed) archive
 No recorded canon

4. Culture revisited: biological difference
Deaf people Hearing people
 Are people of the eye  Are people of the ear
 Use the visual to
navigate the world
 Have a writing system
 Scientifically proven to that reflects sound-
have biologically based communication
greater visual prowess  Use and value the
 Value the visual
 Have a language based visual less
on the visual

5. So how does this impact on
researching multilingually?
Introducing a case study

6. My Doctoral research
 Involves a growing number of co-researchers
(‘participants’)
 Some BSL, some English
 Some have access to both languages, many only to
one
 Required to communicate, possibly collaborate

7. Designing a consent form
 That meets the requirements of the University’s
ethics committee (i.e. a written, archivable version
that can carry a signature)
 That is available in BSL
 That directly ties the BSL and the written versions
together so that BSL users can orientate through the
form (and exercise the right to opt out of certain
clauses)

8. Shot of section of written consent form
Showing image orientation

9. This would have been a screen shot of the DVD….
…but the student computers don’t feature snipping tools, Windows Picture facilities
or other image cropping software.

10. So what are the issues?
Practising multimodality in the academic
institution

11. The resources: the hardware
A beautifully equipped doctoral study space, where the computers are loaded with the necessary
(though not always the most up-to-date) word- based software, and printing facilities and paper
are freely available. Only one of these computers currently has a R/W DVD drive.

12. The resources: the hardware
Here is the shiny new, Mac filled edit suite that is kept under lock and key. It’s available
for researchers and staff but the IT support team haven’t been trained in image/ video
so no support to operate it is available.

13. The resources: the hardware
 Tape-based video camera
 No new tapes available
 No studio/ filming facility
 Real time transfer of taped data
 Issues of electronic storage

14. The resources: the software
 The version of PowerPoint available through the University
does not cater for embedded video, so you can’t see much
of the data for this talk!
 University systems often block social networking and social
media sites (high skin pixel count) because of old-fashioned
suspicions about their use
 Updating video software packages is not given equal
priority by University IT services = old packages (no BITC,
inset etc)
 My University’s system clears video files from it’s memory
cache every 24 hours, so video files cannot be saved
overnight
 And…

15. The resources: the support
 Accessing IT staff becomes a necessary part of
practice only because the hardware systems are
not geared to independent work
 Accessing IT staff is time-consuming (they are
understandably a very busy service) and is not
instantaneous so needs to be carefully scheduled
 IT support staff do not routinely receive training in
video/ image - based software packages
 DVDs must be provided by the student (unless the IT
person is prepared to turn a blind eye)

16. And it’s not just me…..
 "In a field such as African American Studies or Women's Studies, for
example, no one need worry that there will be a publisher and
significant readership for Toni Morrison's next novel. Neither do
these fields need to worry about translating such work. Nor,
certainly, is there the least concern that the technology required for
rendering Morrison's work in an accessible and enjoyable form might
not yet even exist. The entire development of Western discursive
technologies and post-civil rights consumer capitalism supports the
funding, and ready and inexpensive distribution of Morrison's work,
as well as any critical publications concerning it, mainstream or
scholarly. Professors in these fields need only put in orders at
campus bookstores and all will follow. Deaf Studies cannot rely on
any of the above. It must pull itself up by the bootstraps.”
 Frank Bechter (in Bauman 2008)The Deaf Convert Culture and Its Lessons for
Deaf Theory pp.60-79

17. So here’s to a digital future…
…when academia has caught up with social media
and the age of the image…
…and multimodality can take its place alongside
multilingualism 

18. References /useful sources
 Padden, Carol and Tom Humphries (1988) Deaf in America:
Voices from a Culture (Cambridge, Mass. and London,
England: Harvard University Press):21
 Retina Holds the Key to Better Vision in Deaf People
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/1106011716
 Frank Bechter The Deaf Convert Culture and Its Lessons for
Deaf Theory in Bauman, H-Dirksen L. ,ed., (2008) Open Your
Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking (Minneapolis, London: University
of Minnesota Press) pp.60-79
 TREAT YOURSELF to some BSL poetry at
http://www.bris.ac.uk/education/research/sites/micsl/about/

19. kyrapollitt@gmail.com
www.nanafroufrou.wordpress.com
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