Heh...real life has gotten a bit more complex lately...I'm still around even if I don't post as much, 
Anyway. I almost invariably (can never say never) follow the terminology that the Deaf person uses. It doesn't do anyone any good if they're signing the old sign for JAPANESE and I keep using ASIAN or the new sign for JAPANESE and they have no idea what I'm saying. Context is key, though.
For example: my grandmother used to refer to black people as "schvartzes." This is a Yiddish word that in translation simply means "black," but the connotation is definitely that of a mild-to-strong racial slur, depending on how it's used. My grandmother was not a racist in the traditional sense, but she grew up in a community that saw black people as "those other people," and that's how she used the word. One time I tried to tell her "Grandma, that's not a very nice word," but she couldn't really grasp it since she wasn't using it as, say, a Yiddish version of "n-----r." So while I never used the word myself with her, I did stop trying to change her deeply ingrained cultural views.
If I were in an interpreting setting where the deaf client used the old signs, my guess is most likely I would as well. But I haven't been in that situation so I don't know for sure.
