Sign Language Interpreter Rules Criticized In Michigan

VIDEO: Reform for sign language interpreter rules criticized in Michigan.



LANSING, MI. - In April 2005, a Deaf Roseville woman confessed to police to killing her boyfriend without knowing she had a legal right to have a lawyer present and remain silent through an interpreter.



The Michigan Supreme Court later tossed out the confession, concluding Mary Ann McBride's unqualified interpreter failed to communicate through sign language McBride's Miranda rights.



McBride was later convicted in the stabbing death of Robert Adelsburg, but the case and other incidents of sign language miscommunication in legal and medical settings prompted a 2007 law requiring more stringent education and testing requirements for interpreters.

"Unfortunately, situations like that continue to happen," said Sheryl Emery, director of the state Division on Deaf and Hard of Hearing.



Six years later, the new rules are beginning to go into effect, but not everybody is happy with the reforms as Michigan imposes some of the toughest testing requirements for Deaf interpreters in the country intended to prevent interpreter mistakes. Some longtime professional interpreters and graduates of college-level sign language programs say the new state licensing test is difficult and too focused on English language concepts not used in everyday interpreting with Deaf people in community, educational, medical and legal settings.



Robina Anderson, an interpreter from Trenton and the daughter of two Deaf parents, has used sign language for 55 years, but has twice failed a new state exam that places a heavy emphasis on antonyms, synonyms and reading comprehension. Her state certification will become invalid this year under new licensing requirement set to go into effect in June. ...Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130408/METRO/304080345/1409/Reform-sign-language-interpreter-rules-criticized - SOURCE

Waitress Teaching Fellow Employees Sign Language

VIDEO [CC] - Local Waitress teaching fellow employees sign language for school project.



KDKA PITTSBURGH - “Hello, welcome to Kings. My name is Ashley. I’m your server. What can I get you to drink?”



Waitress Ashley Carney uses sign language as she waits on Taylor Doyka. Taylor, Deaf since birth, appreciates the effort made on her behalf.



Her friend, Emily Gabriel, herself a part-time waitress at Kings in Delmont, taught fellow employees the art of sign language.



“Emily had everyone come back in the back and we all came in and learned a little bit of everything,” Ashley recalls. “She went through as much as she could, and then we tried to copy her.”

Emily is a junior, minoring in sign language, at Saint Francis University in Loretto. As part of a class project, she asked manager Jim Pochedly if she could teach sign language to a couple of waitresses.



“He was actually like, why don’t you teach everyone?” Emily says. “And it just kind of snowballed.” She’s thrilled by the response of fellow waitresses. ...Read more: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/03/28/local-waitress-teaching-fellow-employees-sign-language-for-school-project/

Sign Language Advocates Create Visual Book For Deaf & Hearing Students

VIDEO: Sign language advocates create visual book for Deaf and Hearing students.



The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Princess and the Pea and Rapunzel are classic children’s stories that have been adapted, retold and redrawn in classrooms and homes over and over again.



But Dublin resident Laurie Meyer has found a new way to tell those stories: through American Sign Language. She believes the books her company, ASL Tales, is creating can revolutionize the way all children, Deaf and Hearing, learn about and access language.



“We don’t want to be targeted as a book for kids with disabilities,” said Meyer, co-founder of ASL Tales. Instead, her team is thinking, “How can we change the world if everybody had access to this language?”



ASL Tales published its first book in 2008, and its latest project, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, will be released next month. Each book comes with a DVD on which a professional retells the story in sign language, going page by page alongside the illustrations. The DVDs also offer clues that help viewers break down what the signs mean and how they fit together.



Meyer and ASL Tales’s co-founder Pinky Aiello have worked with people from across the country to create the books, but The Boy Who Cried Wolf was made almost exclusively by New Hampshire residents. Concord residents H. Dee and Connie Clanton did the sign language and illustrations for the book, respectively, and other contributors come from Bedford, Dover, Manchester and elsewhere. Parents, teachers and others who want to purchase the books can find more information online at asltales.net.



The goal of ASL Tales is to help children learn language in a visually rich way, and they are not meant exclusively for people who want to become fluent in sign language.



“You don’t have to be curious about American Sign Language to have these books be helpful, that’s the part that people have the hardest time understanding,” Meyer said.



Visual learning can improve the way hearing students learn language, and it allows students with disabilities or language problems to understand stories and words in a different way, Meyer said. The books have also been translated into several other languages, including Arabic, French and Portuguese.



“One of the things that I’ve said for a long time is that ASL, I think, could be a universal precaution against language delay,” Meyer said.



Although the company has been producing books for nearly five years, its been difficult to get the books into classrooms, Meyer said. Many librarians will put them into the section for students with disabilities, but the books are meant for all children, she said.



Another goal of ASL Tales is correcting misunderstandings about what American Sign Language is, she said. Sign language is not simply stringing together a series of signs for different words. Like any language, there is a specific way to put signs together to construct sentences and communicate messages. ...READ MORE: http://www.concordmonitor.com/community/town-by-town/concord/5331184-95/sign-language-advocates-create-visual-book-for-hearing-and-deaf-students

ASL Tales The Princess and the Pea.

Alisha says, "Hi, I'm Alisha Bronk and I want to tell you about an exciting new book with an ASL DVD.



The ASL storytelling, done by Pinky Aiello, will delight Deaf people, Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs), grandparents, students, interpreters, and anyone interested in learning sign language. Please check www.ASLTales.net. It's worth your time!