Group hopes to improve communication with deaf residents<\/p>\n
BY CARLYN RAY MITCHELL
\nThe Monitor<\/p>\n
McALLEN September 3, 2006 \u2014 A group of students sat wide-eyed, eagerly believing they could learn to break the sound barrier.<\/p>\n
It was not the pursuit of the intangible physical phenomenon. Rather, the students were perfecting their ability to interpret the most physical forms of communication: sign language.<\/p>\n
Their instructor, Lynne Wiesman, was one of only a handful in the room with the ability to hear. Most were deaf or hard-of-hearing.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s common denominator is the desire to make a small impact on a big problem facing the Rio Grande Valley\u2019s deaf community: a severe shortage of certified deaf interpreters who can not only aid the deaf in speeches and cultural events, but, more importantly, through the court system.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupply is low; demand is high,\u201d said Wiesman, a Texan with an master\u2019s in business administration who travels the country mentoring professional deaf interpreters.<\/p>\n
The American Disabilities Act requirement that qualified interpreters be available in public places puts a high demand on existing certified interpreters. It also is difficult to find willing and able bodies to take on the difficult challenge of translating physical movement into spoken word and vice versa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not necessarily due to (lack of) interest, it is due to difficulty. People can\u2019t get past a certain level,\u201d said Wiesman, who began signing as a child with her deaf grandfather and reached proficiency by attend-ing the Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf at Howard College in Big Spring.<\/p>\n
It is not uncommon for hearing individuals to be enchanted by the graceful movements of sign lan-guage and want to learn for themselves, she said. Then the reality of the language\u2019s difficulty sets in, which Wiesman attributes to the high dropout rate of beginning American Sign Language courses.<\/p>\n
It might be why only 13 chairs in the classroom at the Valley Association for Independent Living were full. The group has studied together for nearly five months for certification exam which, if passed, will give them the green light to interpret in court.<\/p>\n
Workers at VAIL say it is hard to pinpoint exactly how many certified deaf interpreters would ease the strain currently felt by the few interpreters who do exist here. What is known is that every day they have to turn down requests for interpreters.<\/p>\n
However, Hidalgo County is home to more than 15 percent of the state\u2019s deaf population, which totals just more than 48,000.<\/p>\n
Statewide, there are 1,865 working certified deaf interpreters, according to the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services in Austin, but because the certification process is a hierarchy of skill, not every \u201ccertified\u201d interpreter is able to interpret at the court level.<\/p>\n
VAIL first discovered the problem a few years ago when expanding the services the nonprofit offers to the Valley\u2019s disabled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went into the interpreting business, and we weren\u2019t finding any interpreters, so we decided to grow some,\u201d said Pat Zenor, VAIL\u2019s deputy program director, who learned signed language when no one else in her family was able to communicate with her deaf nephew.<\/p>\n
Interpreters are the only true channel between the silent world of the deaf and the hearing. While tech-nology has computerized the interaction in recent years, experts say no substitute exists for human in-terpreters, who can pick up on regional slang and subtleties of language no machine can.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will always be a need for a live body,\u201d Wiesman said. <\/p>\n
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Group hopes to improve communication with deaf residents BY CARLYN RAY MITCHELL The Monitor McALLEN September 3, 2006 \u2014 A group of students sat wide-eyed, eagerly believing they could learn to break the sound barrier. It was not the pursuit…<\/p>\n