British Sign Language and Deaf Studies

British may refer to:

Deaf studies are academic disciplines concerned with the study of the deaf social life of human groups and individuals including anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, social studies, and sociology. The Deaf studies comprise the scientific study of the deaf-related aspects of the world. Studying the lives of those who are Deaf include learning about their culture, sign language, history and their human rights. Those who participate and join this field of study are involved with promoting the change of views and perspectives of the larger society regarding Deaf people.

Language is a system that consists of the development, acquisition, maintenance and use of complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so; and a language is any specific example of such a system.

A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or medical symptoms signify a disease. A conventional sign signifies by agreement, as a full stop signifies the end of a sentence; similarly the words and expressions of a language, as well as bodily gestures, can be regarded as signs, expressing particular meanings. The physical objects most commonly referred to as signs (notices, road signs, etc., collectively known as signage) generally inform or instruct using written text, symbols, pictures or a combination of these.