High court instructs Govt to provide access to deaf!

In a landmark judgement the High Court of Delhi has created history by instructing the Indian Govt to provide Interpreter access to the deaf community of India. The Nad India had filed a Public interest litigation in this regard in 2007.

A long awaited "post of Sign Langauge Interpreter" has been mooted and the Govt is now to hire interpreters to provide access to deaf people at all points of service access such as courts, hospitals, police stations and so on.

This is great news for the interpreting profession and also for the deaf community of India long oppressed and denied basic rights and access to core services. the court observed that the mainstreaming of the deaf community was very important and the Govt has to bear the cost of providing access.

Interpreting training centers in India languishing for the lack of applicants can now hope for a deluge as the opening up of 15-25000 jobs in interpreting brings a flood of people wanting to learn sign language and become interpreters.

Training is on!

We just started training in Bangalore a city in south India! We have 19 trainees including 3 deaf. It looks like a really good start of the course. Some people already have really good skills and all are really keen and motivated.

We are going to be having a really good course it looks like.

I am really keen to continue the work of training interpreters and hope to be able to get enough interest generated acros the country so that we are able to find motivated groups to take courses everywhere.

We are going to need interpreters all over the country as soon as the supreme court judgement on colleges and inclusive education come out. There is case in the supreme court now that is being decided and the court has asked for the systems that disabled persons need to be put in place. If all goes well then the facilities that university will have to provide for disabled persons will include interpreters for deaf student sin all universities and colleges in India. so deaf people will get the facility from the college free of charge. This will generate huge employment for interpreters in the country.

As we look forward to that day lets all improve our own skills.

go to www.deafsigns.org for ISL learning.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Launching The Indian Sign Language learning 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. I 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 I have spoken to beyond tut tutting and a pat on the back. so had to take the bull by the horns on this one.

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.

The ASLI ie Association of Sign Language Interpreters was launched some time ago and has yet to really make a mark on the national scene however the upcoming conference in February hopefully will do this to a great extent. look out for conference info online at www.signasli.org