Hearing person interested in interpreting

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slewis10

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Hello all, my name is Serena, and I am a little nervous about posting here, but here goes!
I am a college student, and I am taking ASL classes at my university. My teacher is deaf, and has taught me so much- she is absolutely amazing! Anyway, I was born deaf, and have had some hearing problems followed by many surgeries, and so learning to sign has always been something that I am very interested in. I want to find a program where I can be a interpreter for the deaf, the kind that signs for the person, usually in an educational setting. Does anyone have any advice for me, information, or just anything to say about it? I have done plenty of research for programs, don't worry, I am not talking about this without any knowledge!
I just wanted to hear back from somebody who's not in the same position as me! Thanks in advance, Serena
 
Hi Serena,

I'm a little confused. Are you still profoundly deaf? If so, you might want to look into becoming a certified deaf interpreter (CDI); there's information at the website Heath provided.

If when you say "interpreter for the deaf, the kind that signs for the person," you mean you only want to sign but not voice for the deaf client, that is problematic. I don't know of any educational institution that would hire someone who would not voice as well as sign. True, you don't do nearly as much voicing in an educational setting, but you certainly have to be able to do it.

I do know several HOH interpreters who have had to make adjustments so that they can hear well enough to interpret accurately, so hearing loss isn't necessarily a barrier to becoming an educational interpreter.

Don't know if that helps...if you have specific questions to ask, there are plenty of terps around here who are usually happy to chime in.
 
No, I do not have any hearing problems anymore. I understand that I might have to do some talking. In one of my classes, there is a hard of hearing guy who has two interpreters sign what the teacher is saying. That is what I want to do. In my ASL class, there are two interpreters who SPEAK aloud for the teacher, who is deaf. I do NOT want to do that.
 
slewis10 said:
In my ASL class, there are two interpreters who SPEAK aloud for the teacher, who is deaf. I do NOT want to do that.
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Voicing is definitely the bane of most new interpreters' existence, but understand that it may be extremely difficult to get hired if you stipulate that you won't voice for deaf people. Once you're working somewhere you can sometimes request not to get certain assignments (and most likely a brand new interpreter won't be voicing for a deaf teacher, unless she has extraordinary voicing skills), but you can't count on it.

I had a rule for myself starting out that I would never accept any kind of medical interpreting assignment because that is a setting where the stakes are too high. So I was safe in my first year as a professional interpreter at a school, right? Nope: in my first month I was sent to interpret for a student at Health Services. That's the way the job goes!

Even if your class is almost entirely interpreting the teacher's lecture into sign, what are you going to do if the deaf student wants to ask a question? Once you start your ITP I think you'll get a better idea of what is expected of interpreters, and hopefully you'll also get tons of practice in voicing. It really is the toughest thing for many, many -- if not most or even all -- hearing interpreters whose first language is not ASL. But there's a reason why every interpreter performance exam, from RID to in-house, includes both signing and voicing.
 
You might want to look into a interpreter for the deaf/blind people.

Many deaf people do that since they see what they say and they copy them to the deaf/blind clients.
 
sequoias said:
You might want to look into a interpreter for the deaf/blind people.

Many deaf people do that since they see what they say and they copy them to the deaf/blind clients.
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You have a link to that one ?
 
Interpretrator said:
Voicing is definitely the bane of most new interpreters' existence, but understand that it may be extremely difficult to get hired if you stipulate that you won't voice for deaf people. ...
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Very true. The majority of my consumers request voicing. Even consumers who can speak quite well sometimes want me to voice for them.
 
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