ASLI 3RD NATIONAL CONFERENCE

ASSOCIATION OF SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS
803 Sahyog Building
58 Nehru Place
New Delhi 110 019


Dear Friends,

ASLI invites you to the 3rd National Conference of Sign Language Interpreters.

Interpreters and Sign Language users across the country will be getting together at this special event at a very exciting time in the course of disability history in India. The rights of Deaf people to use Sign Language and have access to Interpreters are now the main issues at the forefront of advocacy efforts of Deaf organisations in India. The new Disability law being drafted as we write, enshrines the right of deaf people to have access to interpreters in their daily lives.

We have seen the India government ratify the United Nations Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2007. As more countries sign up to the treaty, Deaf and Disabled people’s rights gain an ever higher place on the agenda worldwide. More than ever there is a need for Interpreters to be available to ensure Deaf people get access to society in India. ASLI continues to work with the India government to ensure Interpreting gets recognised as a profession within India and to ensure that Deaf people get the access to society that is their human right.

The RCI approved course conducted by ASLI in 5 locations the last 8 months is to be continued in the country over the next year as well, and a lot of awareness of the issues of interpreters is being created.

Conference venue: NAVA SPOORTHI KENDRA, COOKSON ROAD, RICHARDS PARK,
NEAR BANGALORE EAST STATION. BANGLAORE.

DATE: MAY 7TH AND 8TH 2011


Who should come?

Friends of Deaf people, family of Deaf people, Teachers of the Deaf, Sign Language Users
Interpreters of signed and spoken languages, Linguists, Social Workers
NGO employees/trustees, Deaf blind people, Deaf blind Interpreters
Educators, Inclusion specialists, Government agencies working with the Deaf


Why should you come?

Understand the situation for Deaf people and Interpreters in India
Get more information about Sign Language Interpreting
Watch and learn from international speakers
Share your experiences of Sign Language, Interpreting and access for Deaf / Deaf blind people
Discuss problems faced by Deaf, Deaf blind people and Interpreters in India
Talk about the future work and employment possibilities of Sign Language Interpreting

Registration:

The registration fee is 600 Rupees for non-members or 500 Rupees for members. This includes attendance at the conference and workshops by international and Indian speakers, lunch and refreshments on both days, conference packet and materials.

Please complete the enclosed booking form and send it to the address below with payment by demand draft payable to The Deaf Way Foundation at Delhi.



Mail registration form and payment to:

ASSOCIATION OF SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETERS
803 Sahyog Building
58 Nehru Place, New Delhi 110 019

Accomodation: Limited accommodation will be provided on first come first serve basis to women from outside Bangalore on cost to cost basis. If you wish to use this facility please contact Ms Namrata at the phone numbers given below. ASLI will not be charging any extra other than actuals for accommodation.

Membership of ASLI:

Membership payments can be accepted at the venue on the day or by demand draft at the address above with conference payment. Please find enclosed a membership form for more information about membership of ASLI and to download a membership form.

About the Organisers:

Arun C. Rao has been an Interpreter for 20 years. He has worked in various domains including conferences and television, online interpreting and community interpreting for 11 years. He has been instrumental in setting up the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) which is working towards getting Deaf rights recognised in India. Rao was invited to be a guest speaker at the World Symposium of Interpreters in the US in 2002. He was on the working group to set up the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) from 2002 - 2007. He is currently president of the Indian Association of Sign Language Interpreters (ASLI).

ASLI was set up formally in 2007 with the aim of supporting those who already work as ‘interpreters’ in the community without recognition or pay. We are campaigning on behalf of this emerging group of interpreters to give them access to training, support and to ask the government of India to recognise the position of Interpreter formally.


Contact:

If you require any further details please contact ASLI at:
+91 11 4160 7261
+91 98 1110 0076
contact@signasli.org



Yours Sincerely,



Arun C. Rao
President of ASLI, India

(enc.)

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.

Orissa training!

The workshop in Orissa went off really well and the people there were really enthusiastic about the whole program. Hopefully thru them we will have some more people who will be ready for training in a year or less.

I think the whole exercise is a good awareness building platform. As we train people more an more people realize the value addition being made to people who are just interested and it will generate more interest. i really hope the snowball comes and i certainly hope to be ready for it when it does.

The high court is still waiting for the response from the govt on interpreter provision. So lets see what comes out of it. Its a matter of time. When it happens we need to be prepared because the need for interpreters is so high that suddenly overnight we will need hundreds.

The Bangalore training starts in 5 days on the 14th of February.

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.