15 students participated in a ‘voice-off’ sign language program in Scotland

This May, Pitt’s Comparative Sign Language global experience took off to Edinburgh, Scotland, with 15 students and two faculty members.

The two-week program was “voice-off” — no spoken English — creating a rare opportunity for students to expand their linguistic and cultural fluency in a multilingual signed environment. Students relied instead on their background of American Sign Language (ASL) and engaging deeply with British Sign Language (BSL), the primary language of the host country.

Organized by Lauren Perri, assistant director of global experiences for Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and expert researchers studying sign languages at Heriot-Watt University, the program required complex logistical coordination due to the interplay of three languages: ASL, BSL, and spoken English.

“It was certainly not the easiest program to develop, but it was one of the most rewarding,” Perri said. “It pushed me to think about access on a global level.”

The program was led and taught by ASL program coordinator Debra Hast and ASL instructor Airza Bosley, both of the Dietrich School’s Department of Linguistics and Pitt’s Less-Commonly-Taught Languages Center. Students participated in lessons, workshops and cultural experiences designed to highlight BSL and draw from their existing knowledge of ASL. Beyond the classroom, students connected with members of the local Deaf community in Edinburgh and Glasgow, gaining firsthand understanding of Deaf culture in the U.K.

“At the beginning, we had to remind them to voice off, but they learned how to communicate, how to navigate the Deaf space,” Hast said.

The experience was not only academically enriching but personally transformative. Students returned with a deeper appreciation for the complexity of sign languages and the lived experiences of Deaf individuals in different cultural settings. Plans are already underway to offer the program again.

Photography courtesy of Lauren Perri