Campus interpreters work, learn in silence
By Priscilla Reyna-Ovalle
Date: 3/5/09
The American Sign Language/interpreter training department provides
interpreting services to about 30 deaf students at this college..
This college is recognized nationally for having one of the best
programs for the deaf and the best in Texas, said Jo Hilton,
interpreter service manager, Feb. 27.
Half of the interpreters for the deaf who work in San Antonio are
graduates of the ASL department at this college, and 10 percent of
working interpreters in Texas graduated from this college, Hilton
said. Hilton said these figures came from the Board for the Evaluation
of Interpreters.
Of the seven faculty members in the department, three are deaf.
Deaf students do not have to register with the disability support
services office here.
Instead, they sign up with deaf and hard of hearing services, a
program offered by the interpreter-training department.
The department takes into account the students’ language skills and
matches them up with an interpreter.
Since the Americans with Disability Act came into effect, the college
has to provide deaf students with interpreters in all of their classes
and at every event on campus, Hilton said.
Sophomore Edson Gonzalez, an international deaf student studying
graphic design and 3-D animation, said through interpreter and support
specialist Alana Grunspan, that when he came to this college in spring
2005, there were no such programs to help deaf students in Mexico.
Edson is provided with two interpreters, who switch every 20 minutes,
for each of his classes.
Interpreters do not take notes for deaf students. They simply provide
signing.
The department employs two full-time and 16 part-time interpreters.
In addition, students in the program can start practicing interpreting
through internships in the last semester of the program.Grunspan said
she is getting another education being an interpreter for deaf
students. She is learning all the subjects the students are.
Interpreter Rachel Wheeler said her work as an interpreter is not the
typical 9-to-5 job because it takes her to a variety of places and she
meets new people. Professor Darin Dobson, who is deaf, said through
Grunspan, that more people need to be informed that American Sign
Language is considered a foreign language.
“It’s a facilitation through two languages,” he said. Upon mastering
sign language, hearing students also learn of the deaf culture.
“Deaf people don’t consider themselves handicapped,” ASL freshman
Anna Marie Sanchez said. “They have their own community and are very
protective of their language.”
The ASL/interpreting training program consists of 72 hours to
complete an associate in applied science. All interpreters must pass a
state test through the Board for Evaluation of Interpreters.
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