Tag: ASL

American Sign Language

  • Workshops on deaf-blind interpreting, oral transliteration at RID V in Hawaii

    Workshops on deaf-blind interpreting, oral transliteration at RID V in Hawaii

    I am presenting two workshops at the RID Region V conference in Hawaii June 13–17:

    Lend me an ear. And a hand. And a black shirt: What you need to know about deaf-blind interpreting.

    Have you ever had consumers who asked you to “sign small” and “wear a black shirt”? If you have done video interpreting, chances are you have interpreted for deaf-blind “low vision” consumers at least a few times. Less likely is that you have interpreted for low vision consumers in person, and even less likely is that you have ever done tactile interpreting— which technology has not yet made possible over VRS. This workshop will introduce you to various kinds of blindness and teach you how to accommodate your signing space to the resulting kinds of “low vision.” You will also learn the basic techniques of tactile interpreting and informing the consumer about the environment. Come expand your repertoire. No black shirts required.

    Read my lips: Making English visible through oral transliteration

    This workshop provides an overview of oral transliteration: what it is, who uses it, and how to do it right. Come and learn: Why some deaf people want to read your lips; How you can be pro-Deaf culture and still respect and serve oral deaf people; How you can transfer what you’ve learned in ASL interpreting to oral transliteration. Have you ever been sent to a job where the person didn’t know sign language but wanted to read your lips, and you didn’t know what to do? Here’s a good place to start. Unlearn some of the “good habits” in sign interpretation that are “bad habits” in oral transliteration. Increase the number of consumers you can serve. People of all knowledge levels are welcome.

  • You can now adjust the closed-captions on my YouTube vlogs

    Announced today: YouTube’s enhancements to closed-captioning. I’m glad to hear this! I am a longtime supporter of closed-captioning. I posted my first closed-captioned video on Google Video just after they implemented closed-captioning in 2006. Now YouTube has implemented CC settings that allow viewers to adjust the font, size, color, and background of captions. Even better, YouTube is now supporting older captioning formats so that videos captioned decades ago can now be uploaded along with their original caption files. This means millions more closed-captioned videos will now be viewable on YouTube!

    Here’s that first closed-captioned video I posted on Google Video— now on YouTube. I’m glad people watching the videos I caption can now adjust the look of the subtitles to their preference. Feel free to fiddle with the CC settings to make the captions look just the way you like.

  • Participated in an ASL Hangout on Air on Google+

    I just realized I never blogged this! Did this last month on Google+ to help them test their Hangout On Air technology with other people using sign language.

  • Where are the sign language interpreter blogs today?

    I began writing this website in 1996, and when I turned it into a blog in 2006 I searched the blogosphere and I found some other ASL interpreter blogs. Back then, two of the four blogs I found were inactive, and since then, the other two have become inactive.

    Today, things are different. While I have continued to publish my posts about interpreting for the deaf and various topics, other blogs have emerged and thrived. Here are four that I am aware of: (more…)

  • Update on my thesis on VL in ASL

    I am working on my master’s thesis on vague language (VL) in American Sign Language (ASL). As far as I know, not much has been published about vagueness in ASL and nothing has been published about “VL” in ASL aside from my article in the RID Views. For my thesis, I’m doing a literature review of what has been written about VL in world languages and vagueness in ASL— even if the topic of the publication wasn’t “vagueness” per se. After a review of the literature, I will contribute a description of at least one aspect VL in ASL. My goal is to help ASL-English interpreters recognize VL and interpret it faithfully to serve the communication goals of deaf and hearing consumers.

    If you know of any literature about VL in ASL—or any type of vagueness in ASL—please leave a comment. Thanks!