One dictionary that might be a bit helpful is:
Random House Webster's American Sign Language Medical Dictionary
I'm not sure if it would help a lot - however I've found it's a great reference when explaining conditions etc to people who are native ASLer ... so even if it didn't give you as much "technical knowledge" as you need for right now... it WILL be helpful once you're interacting with signing patients
Regarding classes ...
I ran into a lot of the same fingerspelling issues taking theology
I'm not sure if what I did (along with the help of the local Deaf community and my interpreters (some of whom are CODAs)...
Because in many cases ASL signs don't exist for the more technical English terms - and it's critical that specific English term be used one thing my interpreters ended up doing was creating a number of fingerspelled abbreviations or manipulating existing signs (using initialization or using 2 ASL signs to mean a term etc) for some of the most commonly use long words that didn't have ASL signs.
I created a word doc. with the English terms in alphabetical order and then beside it the fingerspelled abbreviation, initialized sign, sign preference etc
For example:
Religion = R brushed down off opposite chest
* (version 2 found in "xxxx")
Theology = "T" initialization of RELIGION
*
Tanak = T+N+K (fingerspelled)
Pentateuch = 5+ BOOK (or 5+BIBLE+BOOK)
I would use "
*" to indicate that the RELIGION is also in the Word/Sign List.
Also if there are multiple ways to sign a English word I'd sometimes provide a website or ASL dictionary reference.
EACH of my interpreters where given this "word list" and I kept one in front of me during lectures etc as well ... so I could add new words/signs, change/clarify abbreviations (for names, and long technical terms etc). It also meant if I forgot one of the abbreviations I could quickly find it.
Because it was my first time working with interpreters in an educational setting and because I didn't know a TON of religious/theological signs until started thinking about going back to university - I did give my interpreters a lot "permission" to make suggestions and give me input (especially the first 4months) on the theological ASL signs we used- especially if they'd seen a sign elsewhere in their local educational interpreting etc - or if they knew of an English abbreviation for a word that would be good to use in ASL as well etc.
In some cases ASL signs for a word exist - however the same sign is used for a number of different words of basically the same meaning. The issue in theology class is that I needed to know EXACTLY the English word being used, not it's synonym. In these case creating a "guide" (list with the English word & the ASL used) can be very helpful - especially when your interpreters change (so they can "study up" before they start interpreting for you, or find the preferred sign at a glance while interpreting).
One example of this is that the "old testament", "Hebrew bible" and "TaNaK" are all technically the exact same group of scripture books ... and because of that it makes sense that in MOST conversations if you could just use the sign for "old testament" - however when studying theology each of the three terms subtly mean something different for example:
Old Testament = the term used by
Christians to denote the first part of the bible before the birth of Christ.
Hebrew Bible = an ecumenical term used to denote the Jewish bible (identical to the what Christians call the Old Testament)
"TaNaK" = the "technical term" and Hebrew name of the sacred texts of the Jewish people. These texts are made up of the Torah (law), Nevi'um (Prophets) & Ketu'vim (writings).
Because each of these words has "background/additional meaning" it's important that if a prof or student says "Tanak" that my interpreters sign to me the sign we've decided to specifically mean "Tanak" and NOT the interpreters randomly picking a sign from the group of "TANAK", "Old Testament", "Hebrew Bible" etc.
I'm not sure if that makes sense or not - however I thought I'd post on the off chance it was helpful
