Interpreters channel new technology<\/p>\n
By ERIN PEDIGO
\nReporter<\/p>\n
Lori Wrzesinski likens the little-known American Sign Language\/English interpreting minor to a hidden jewel. <\/p>\n
Standing in the laboratory that students in the minor use for projects, she had the lab assistant, Larry Umberger, demonstrate Visual Relay Service, a new technology that allows deaf people to make phone calls. <\/p>\n
Umberger is deaf. <\/p>\n
The technology is simple. The deaf person clicks a remote control at a TV, and an interpreter appears on the screen, asking the deaf person if he or she would like to make a call. <\/p>\n
During the phone conversation, the interpreter signs to the deaf person, allowing the callers to converse. <\/p>\n
“There was a shortage of interpreters before this technology,” Wrzesinski said. <\/p>\n
Wrzesinski is director of the American Sign Language Program, and she’s also a senior lecturer. <\/p>\n
The interpreting program was created 10 years ago, Wrzesinski said, after the lack of interpreters was acknowledged by a Texas Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities. <\/p>\n
The committee conducted a disabilities survey, which highlighting the need for sign-language interpreters. <\/p>\n
After the survey’s results were released, Baylor’s goal was to lay a foundation for students to incorporate a sign language\/English interpreting minor with any major, Wrzesinski said. <\/p>\n
The minor requires students to take four levels of sign language. <\/p>\n
When they complete a bachelor’s degree, they have the option of taking the Registration for Interpreting for the Deaf exam, created by the National Organization and Association for the Deaf. <\/p>\n
After passing the exam, they’re able to teach and interpret for the deaf. <\/p>\n
The first deaf education students graduated in 2004, with half of them taking and passing the exam, Wrzesinski said. <\/p>\n
Students currently pursuing the minor work outside of the university. <\/p>\n
As part of their degree, they’re involved in a pen pal program with deaf junior-high students at Austin’s Texas School for the Deaf. <\/p>\n
The correspondence program uses sign and spoken language, with students sending letters as well as videotapes to the students in Austin, Wrzesinski said. <\/p>\n
“The teachers say the students are never more motivated to read than when they get their letters,” she said. <\/p>\n
The interpreting students also visit Austin to work and play with the children on their campus, play games and enjoy each other’s company. <\/p>\n
The Austin high school students visit Baylor in the spring, and Wrzesinski said their favorite activity is to eat in the Penland Residence Hall cafeteria. <\/p>\n
Wrzensinski said some sign language minors have gone beyond helping the deaf in the state of Texas. <\/p>\n
Beth Underwood is a Mesquite senior with a American Sign Language\/English Interpreting minor. <\/p>\n
She became interested in sign language during high school and later pursued the interpreting minor with her sights set on a career. <\/p>\n
Underwood traveled to Honduras last June to work with deaf children at a Christian school. <\/p>\n
During her trip she said she worked with a group of deaf students to build their knowledge of deaf culture and also signing. <\/p>\n
In Honduras, the local sign language is called Lengua de Se\u00f1as Hondure\u00f1as, much like here it’s American Sign Language, Wrzesinski said, <\/p>\n
Many sign languages across the globe have commonalities that make it easy for students of ASL to learn them, she said. <\/p>\n
All sign languages use the concept of space, Wrzensinski said, because they are visual and not spoken,” she said. <\/p>\n
“This makes it easier just by the virtue of the fact that they’ve been exposed to the common grammatical features among sign languages. <\/p>\n
“If students have a foundation in sign language they are able to communicate in any sign language (because of) the use of space and directional verbs,” she said. <\/p>\n
Wrzesinski said that many view the deaf as disabled. She said she thinks if people were to look closer into the deaf culture and perhaps consider th minor or a couple of deaf education classes they would see that the deaf are just like others in many ways, and yet they constitute a minority, too. <\/p>\n
“They’re really like any other group that speaks a different language than the majority,” she said. <\/p>\n
Wrzesinski said a sign language interpreting minor is beneficial for fields like nursing and social work where interpreter would allow doctors or patients to communicate easier. <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.baylor.edu\/Lariat\/news.php?action=story&story=41803 <\/p>\n
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Interpreters channel new technology By ERIN PEDIGO Reporter Lori Wrzesinski likens the little-known American Sign Language\/English interpreting minor to a hidden jewel. Standing in the laboratory that students in the minor use for projects, she had the lab assistant, Larry…<\/p>\n