Kokata and the way ahead!

the recently concluded course in Kolkata only served to emphasise and underline what i have been saying for some time now! Deaf people will use whatever interpreters they have at hand, and those terps are the ones who need the support of and the guidance of trainers. they are already supplying the need of the def community and though they may not be graduates of "Gallaudet" or equally prestigious colleges they are walking the walk, talking the talk and they know the local variant far better than any one else.

From a development perspective and from the developing country point of view, i want to strengthen the hands of the ones who are already doing the job. I think one of my most humbling moments was when this interpreter working in the rural areas explained his work and how he was the only interpreter for hours in any direction. He was so serious when he talked of the local signs and how they were different to the ones that he was taught in the course he attended at a Govt institute and seeing him feeling guilty about using signs that the local deaf use and understand, was awful.

He is a young man, motivated, full of energy, loves deaf people, hangs out with them all day, works in a school for the deaf where he is the only signer, all he needed was that encouragement and a little more theory and practical tips and he is so so much better than he was earlier and we can check off one district on the emergency list.

Its for these young turks who are pushing the envelope out there that ASLI is working. We are going to work with the far flung terps who are desperate for inputs and so happy to hear that they are providing a valuable service and can charge for their services.

The 'free' culture still prevails in India but to find validation in this young chap was a major for me. We hooked him up to an urban org of def people who are desperate for a terp who is available and motivated. After a 30 min chat about all sorts of things he is now their weekend interpreter. super!

training is on!

The long awaited training for interpreters has finally been kicked off after a gap of 11 years. the first course was held from 16th to 24th of august and the second is being held in Kolkata from 4th to 12th of September.

An added piece of wonderful news is that the RCI i issuing a specific CRE credit for the course and the attendees who complete and make the grade will be receiving a certificate from the RCI valid across the country. the first ever specific interpreters training qualification has thus been launched.

We are really excited that the first course with 7 interpreters and 3 deaf trainees went off so well. there are courses planed now for the eastern zone and the south zone in bhubaneswar, coimbatore and bhopal in the upcoming few months.

The work on the post of 'sign language interpreter' continues as we all know that this is the necessary catalyst to promote the profession and give it the deserved attention.

more update in the near future.

the world association sign language interpreters is having conference in Durban, see the link below if you wish to attend.

http://www.wasli.org/wasli-conference-14-16-july-2011-durban-p37.aspx

Bridging the Gap!!

How do we get interpreters certified and how do we get people to recognize certification and how do we train people for certification? These are the questions that been plaguing the country for years and the deaf community is so fed up of the fight. They are hanging in there though for the distance and we do hope that the fight will soon turn into cooperative effort between Govt. and NGO’s to create the needed human resource for the deaf to be able to access life. The ASLI has taken a big step forward recently with the completion of the Interpreting ‘Bridge’ Course. The idea is to involve at the first level, the best of the signers in India and the ones who can actually communicate with the deaf being CODA’s or siblings of the deaf. The 10 day intensive full time course is aimed at giving these signers the knowledge of interpreting theory and coping strategies enabling them to do better as interpreters and avoid the trap of being in the helper mode which s rather common. The idea would be that at the end of the course they would be far more efficient as interpreters than they were before.

The course is being put up to the Rehabilitation Council of India for review and accreditation. The Course will be similar to the one we did way back in 1999 in Chennai as an Orientation course for interpreters. This one is far better and is actually going to be a fore runner of the longer 3 months certificate course that ASLI would like to develop.

The idea of using deaf community terps as trainers is unique and the ASLI trainers are even now seeking out deaf and hearing terps with family who are deaf or who have long time association with the deaf community.

ASLI setting up training!

The ASLI has now set in motion a dynamic new idea to increase the awareness of interpreting and interpreters in the country. I was at the world conference of Interpreters in Segovia in 2007 and remember listening to talks by various individuals about how the “professional interpreter” was emerging as a ‘delinked’ individual in some ways in certain societies. The most impressive of these speakers was Dr. Chris Stone of the English ASLI, a brilliant interpreter and academic. He was talking about how the deaf community as an integrated unit needs to include interpreters and the interpreters themselves need to be involved at different levels and interfaces with the deaf community instead of coming in – doing a job – and leaving. This makes for a divide between terps and deafies and this is to be avoided. I remember sharing a question at the time. I was amazed or rather aghast at what he said. We in India are praying and preparing and advocating and fighting for the “professional interpreter” and trying to get out of the “helper mode” and he was talking about deaf community linkage and trust. I said we have 10 million deaf in India and very few interpreters. How do we do this? His answer was even more amazing, he said “Well Arun we are going to be watching you and seeing how you are going to resolve the issues cuz we need to find out how to do this.” This from a person of Dr. Stone’s stature just goes to show how the more you know the more unassuming we need to become. My respect for him increased greatly at that time from his simple humble answer. I am glad to say that the first step of my journey in setting up interpreting in India was validated at that time. The actual nuts and bolts of giving India interpreters took longer and now 3 years later we are halfway there with a website for amateur interpreters and a small membership organisation.

Realising the need for interpreters!

It amazing how many people do not realise the need for interpreters. The people who need interpreters the most have finally got their act together and are moving for interpreters to be empanelled. the Delhi Legal Services Authority.

Its really wonderful news. I am just waiting for the recruitment and empanelling process to be completed and then we are going to roll it out across India through the ASLI platform. The precedent being set by the Delhi High court and the order of the High Court tot he Delhi Legal services will be replicated across India and we will hopefully be able to create a lot of awareness through this.

How to include the Police dept on this is the question on my mind and certainly as the first interface of the judicial system with society we need to find a suitable solution. One wonders if the DLSA can extend its empannelling to include the Police and the same empanelled persons will be eligible to do duty at both places.

In the meantime I am going to be working on finding good contacts within the police force to approach with this idea. Naturally it follows that the same would again be rolled out to the states.

Big plans!

OPEN LETTER TO STANDING COMMITTEE OF PERSONNEL

Greetings from the Association of Sign Language Interpreters!

We are a relatively new organisation working for the promotion of the profession of Sign Language Interpreting and Equal Access for the deaf community of India. Our membership is across the country and the work thought slow thus far has been heartening as many people are coming forward to serve the needs of the deaf people of our country.

The deaf people of India have had no formal accessibility norms until today and it is with regard to this that I am writing to you today.

The 11^th 5 year Plan was a revolutionary document in that, unlike the previous 10 Plans, this one has an entire chapter (attached) devoted to the upliftment of the disabled people of the country. A specific mention was made of many disabilities and particular mention was made with regard to deafness.

A portion of the section reads “The interventions planned shall provide access to information in all its forms. A large number of sign language interpreters need to be developed for hearing impaired people to access health, employment and legal services.” Further “during the Eleventh Plan period a Sign Language Research and Training Centre will be established which will be devoted to the development and promotion of sign language and training of teachers and interpreters”

The deaf community needs these interventions as their basic necessities for a positive dignified life as contributors to society and empowered citizens. There is then a fundamental need to create a new job in the ‘job list’ defining a “Sign Language interpreter” Without this job being in the job list no interpreter will be recruited by the Govt to provide the access needs of the deaf community of India. If there is no career future then no persons will train to become interpreters and the cycle continues.

Sir, as you see we are approaching a crisis. The Finance Minister in his budget speech has already announced the approval of funds for the Sign Language Institute. The institute will not serve its purpose unless there are trainees and no trainees will come if there are no jobs available for them.

Sir, we would like to meet with you on this matter and try to come to an understanding of what can be done. Please do give us an appointment at your convenience where we may discuss this and other matters.

Thanking you,

ASLI ROLLING ALONG!

The ASLI team is now rolling out an evaluation program for the people who are already sign users so they can by pass the tedious process of training in ISL and move directly on to interpreting. The idea is to create a bridge course of 15 day duration to teach specific classes on "interpreting skills". This can be done in each and every nook and cranny of the country and thereby we empower interpreters working for the deaf across the country. The local sign language variation will not be a hindrance and then these local interpreters whoa re working without training or support will be tied in to a national network and recive online training and support from ASLI.

I am rather excited that this way of impacting India is receiving attention finally and the plan that my best friend and I developed 11 years ago is finally off the shelf and in the fray.

Really excited about how this is going to develop. We are getting a team together to develop the course. gonna be good working with linguistic profs and educators and terps all together. wow! also going to put an email group or website group together so we can swop documents and ideas on line.

the vision for indian interpreting!

It sometimes hard for me to grasp that the numbers are so low. And yet the numbers should be so high. given that there are lets say 10 million deaf people in india. lets remove half as being overstated. so 5 million then lets remove 80% as being rural and therefore limited language skills and mostly home sign users. thats 1 million and lets remove 80% as being semi lingual and orally trained and so are unable to speak or to sign. that leaves us 200,000 urban signers. Lets say half of these have not been able to influence any one in their family to sign though they sign themselves. then we have 100,000 deaf people who sign and have siblings who sign. That makes it 100,000 siblings who sign. and taking the last number of 200,000 signers assuming that these many deaf signers get married and have children who sign then we are talking about another 100,000 at least of CODAs. so we should have about 200,000 sign users in the country somewhere.

CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT??? 200,000 INTERPRETERS!!!!

That is what my target for ASLI is. 200,000 members. The number of Indian sign language interpreters whether they are active or not or whether they are formally trained or not, whether they are interested in signing as a profession or not..... they are out there.

All ASLI needs to do is get out there and find them. Just locate them and we are going to be up to our eyebrows in Interpreters and not a moment too soon. There is a whole army of deaf people waiting for services and resources and information and everything.

Can you imagine when we tell the govt they need to have one interpreter per school cuz Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, "education for all" cannot function otherwise? Thats 12 lakh Govt schools and about 50 lakh private schools. You are talking some serious numbers at only one per school. if it was two? or three? Its the highest growing profession in the country.

there is a lot to do. that is for sure.

Conference News!

It was a great day in the history of ASLI that we were able to host a national conference with 3 international speakers. and thats not all. The diversity of the speakers as well as the participants was amazing. A linguist, a deaf professor, a rotary volunteer educationist, an interpreter, and a deaf blind person; 3 from abroad came together to make a wonderful conference experience for the 50 odd persons who gathered there.
The attendees had students of ISL, parents, researchers, deaf people, CODAs and professional interpreters as well. what a mix and what a fun two days.

Dr. Madan was the key note presenter and he came up with some really funny gags to keep everyone in splits. The Dupatta interpreter was a particular favorite. ha! He was talking about how indian girls when they interpret they are continuously fidgeting with their clothes and particularly the dupatta. ha! Good one!

An amazing two days. Just the energy around the table and the expectancy and the hope was tangible, almost could touch the excitement in the air. What a cool suggestion came from someone in the audience who is a student of ISL. He said as casually as possible " I was looking in all the bookshops for a sign language book but could not find one."

It is really crazy why nobody has ever mainstreamed the ISL handbook. Simple get a publisher to pick it up and then they publish it and it goes into the regular book network and thats that. so simple! My god!! why didn't anyone think of it before??? or maybe they did and they just did not say anything. Any way its got me thinking!!!

countdown to conference!

WE are all on the edge of our seats and the excitement is running high. all eyes on tomorrow when the national conference of sign language interpreters begins.
Its so encouraging to be receiving confirmations from across the country for the conference and yet its like being on a high-wire walk across the grand canyon. Very very scary.
The stage is set and our speakers are here. The program is finalised. I somehow feel the future of indian interpreting is all going to be there tomorrow. The core team of interpreters who were bold enough to spend their own money and come and participate without knowing very much about us. are we going to be able to fulfill their expectations?? this is in my mind. Are we going to be able to take on the onerous charge of running this organisation effectively.
The need is simply huge. the new signntalk video interpreting relay service is due for launch and the while country is watching. its a really emotional high time. i feel so relieved and at the same time apprehensive. a series of conflicting and confusing emotions as we go in to the conference tomorrow.
Hats off to the team tho. they have been ultimately wonderful. the support of my beloved staff and friends has as always been a bulwark for me in every new venture we take on and i am so thankful for that support.
HERE'S TO TOMORROW!!!!

count down to the conference!

The mood is exciting and the office somewhat turbulent.... Everybody is going for the burn. That is the mood right now in my office and the crackle in the air is the upcoming conference of interpreters. more and more are registering and the event promises to be a humdinger.

I have been meeting with a few terps from across the country recently and everyone really wants to come. some cant of course and that is really too bad. Hope fully the effect of this conference and the advocacy after this conference will help the indian terps to get their long awaited due of respect and recognition for the profession. this will automatically help the profession to grow into a serious career option for the future. The idea of having no remuneration for a job you do is not a very enthusing prospect and so interpreters who are now working are a dedicated lot who really would like to see change.

I hope to give it to them thru a series of changes in policy and procedure and if all goes well, Govt intervention. The powers that be are also aligned for the change and they just don't know it. the 11th Plan clearly mandates the training and development of interpreters. Its just a matter of time before we catch up to them.

Its time to have all deaf people everywhere seeking out and searching out interpreters and friends who know signs and encouraging everyone to really beat the bushes for the people who know how to sign and have them all come and work among deaf persons empowering deaf people to communicate.

COMMUNICATIONS CARD

Deaf people in india are often beaten to ensure that they are really deaf. No... its true. this is a common test performed by police men and other authority groups such as random mobs, groups of rambunctious youth on a rampage and so on.

I really dunno how useful it will be in a heated situation but we just developed a communication support card for our deaf members. A simple plastic card to be carried and shown to any one to let them know that you are in fact deaf and are not able to speak and communicate as others do with few tips on talking/communicating with deaf people on the flip side. A plug for the internet video relay service, Signntalk.org and The Association of Sign Language Interpreters is added and you have a neat little card that says most of it.

We are doing pilot test with the group at the National Deaf Youth Conference starting on 25th jan. I will be back with feed back.

Indian sign language website!

Indian Sign language and the Interpreter situation in India has received very little attention and as such it has been an uphill struggle to get anyone to understand the importance of the access issues the deaf face. We have been trying in vain for years for people to understand the issue and accept the fact that interpreters are an integral part of the intervention the deaf people of India need to be able to participate in society and be included. This has had no effect on any of the ones we have spoken to beyond tut-tutting and a pat on the back.

So we had to take decisive action to promote and promulgate Indian Sign Language in any way possible. We started with leaflet distribution in 2004 and VCD soon after.We have just launched the first website to use video to showcase and teach Indian Sign Language. The site went up last week and we are just through checking it. So this is an invite to all the people who really want to learn and see Indian Sign Language in action. The site is out there at www.deafsigns.org

The marathon production took over a 18 months to complete and finalise and finally design and upload. A team of deaf people worked on it for vocabulary and choosing dominant and popular signs. the film work and the editing was also done by deaf people. a completely indigenously made website with a lot to offer.

We plan to make a DVD of the entire site with sentences in Sign language included and grammar notations to enable student of Indian Sign Language to access learning at home.

The Deaf Way had made the first VCD of Indian Sign Language years ago and that has been the mainstay of the teaching process at The Deaf Way for some time. This new Website has taken it to the next level and we really hope that many people will be able to access and use it to learn.

so go there and check it out.

www.deafsigns.org

FEEDBACK PLEASE!!! SMILE!

The view from over here!

There is a heck of a long way to go for the interpreting community in India. The whole recognition of sign language debate is still not going anywhere and the Govt is already racked with enough languages to sink a ship. Adding sign language to the apple cart is just one more thing. And thats about that.

I was just thinking lets go whole hog. Lets challenge the hearing people out there with their national language definition and put their ideas to the test. If we had a hearing person from all over India who only spoke one official language each then we would have 18 people because there are 18 languages in the constitution. If these 18 folks got together and tried to talk they woul;d get nowhere fast because nobody understand anyone else at any level. then we get 18 deaf people from all over the country from the various language areas as above and the 18 deaf folks have a rip roaring great time talking about everything under the sun.

Who's "dumb" now???? Huh???

So is that settled then???

QED : Indian Sign Language is the only really national language in the country today being used across the country by deaf persons for communicating without barriers.

So how about the scoffers put that in their pipe and smoke it!!!!!

Interpreting Conference in February

The ASLI is now having its second conference on a national scale in India in February in Delhi. Its a wonderful opportunity to get senior experts together to discuss INterpreting and Sign Language and deaf access issues. Senior leaders in the field both deaf and hearing have confirmed to attend and by all accounts it should be a wonderful event.

The goal wold be to of course get a lot of publicity thru the deaf community and also in the general media as to the importance of interpreters and the access issues that deaf people face on a daily basis which others don't realise.

Efforts are on even now to get Govt agencies and ministries to participate and gain experience about these critical issues before formulating policies on these matters.

The issue of community interpreting which is by far the most relevant one for a country such as ours wit a population of 10 million deaf persons will be addressed at the conference in detail. I am looking forward to having a number of interpreters who have been working at the grass roots level across the country coming in to share their own experiences and the work that they have been doing. While the presentation will be rather specialised and illuminating in their own way I feel that the ground realities are the indicators by which we will need to chart our future. These will be the most valuable inputs and we hope to capitalise on each attendees experience to guide us.