This paper explores the algebraic expressions of deaf learners as they explore and construct sequences using the digital microworld Mathsticks. More specifically, it attempts to identify how the deaf students coordinated bodily, discursive and digital resources in order to attribute their own personal senses to the notion of variable. Examples of their interactions with the tasks and tools are analysed to identify evidence of the presence of the three conditions of algebraic thinking, indeterminacy, denotation and analyticity. Our findings suggest that the creation of a shared sign "secret number" to represent the idea of variable was central in facilitating the students to adopt algebraic rather than arithmetic approaches and to appropriate the idea of a general term. [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]