Deaf students and written English

Students whose first language is British Sign Language (BSL) may have little experience of written English, and may have difficulties both in reading and their own writing.
If there is difficulty with written English then a BSL interpreter could be used to help clarify a student's work.
Some deaf students are bilingual and have good written English skills, but if their first language is BSL they may
- take longer to read, understand and assimilate written information
- misunderstand or misinterpret written information, especially where there is some ambiguity or where it relates to abstract concepts
- have a limited vocabulary and make grammatical errors with poor sentence construction
- take longer to plan and produce written work than do other students
- have low self-esteem regarding their academic work.
Consider allowing additional time to read or to complete written tasks.
When preparing handouts or other written materials, try to structure and phrase them as clearly as possible.
- Use clear headings that give a good idea of the subject matter that follows.
- Present information in a logical order.
- Where possible use short sentences. Avoid convoluted sentences.
- What essential subject-specific language do you need to use?
- Think about vocabulary. Is there a more common word that will do as well? Avoid words with a double meaning.
- In particular, make sure that language is clear and unambiguous when giving instructions.
- Avoid passive constructions. For example, ‘Marconi invented the radio’ is better than 'the radio was invented by Marconi’.
- Consider the type size, spacing on the page and layout. Is it as clear as it could be?
- Visual images such as clearly labelled diagrams and pictures can help.
As an illustration, The British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (BATOD) provides the following example of how language can be modified to make it clearer without losing any of its meaning. (This is taken from a school-level science question.)

Original question:

If you were provided with three black painted metal rods, one of which is known to be made of brass, one of magnetised steel and one of unmagnetised steel, describe how, without scratching the black paint, you would identify each of the rods.

Modified question:

You have three black painted metal rods. One is made of brass, one of magnetised steel and one of unmagnetised steel. Describe how to find out what each rod is made of. You must not scratch the black paint.