SL Interpretation at TISLR

[Carol Padden]

Dear Josep --

I wrote a reply to a recent posting but it got bounced back, evidently
because of an alternate email address I was using.  Let me try again.

First, I want to commend the Barcelona group and Mr. Quer for your
efforts to mount another conference, and for being willing to open
up discussion on the topic of interpreting at international conferences.

I agree that we should reach consensus on a fundamental principle,
one that I am pleased to see Mr. Quer offer here - that the
organizers recognize there is a responsibility to support interpretation.
I propose that the organizers reach a determination about
how much they can expect to budget for this purpose. This will become
the constraint we need to work within. It seems to me that
it doesn't make sense to debate over how many or which sign
languages until we know what the real constraints are.

I too support a voluntary committee of concerned individuals who
can then work out a pragmatic accomodation that abides by these
principles.

Carol Padden

At 11:52 AM +0200 4/17/03, Josep Quer wrote:
>Dear Listers,
>
>I'm glad the discussion has finally started and important issues are brought
>up. I essentially agree with the points made in the recent postings, and I
>really hope we can reach a consensus on this matter. Let me make it clear that
>it never was our intention to put the burden of interpreting costs on the
>budgets of our Deaf colleagues. I felt uncomfortable when a Deaf colleague
>from the US  offered to bring the ASL interpreters himself, making use of the
>resources his institution has allocated for this purpose, because that might
>limit his opportunities to attend other conferences where no SL interpreting
>will be provided.
>Still, we are all embedded in very different academic, social and economic
>conditions, and that makes it especially complicated. Even for those who live
>in developed countries, situations vary enormously. As a hearing linguist in a
>wealthy country who is unable to sign a lecture, I couldn't possibly apply for
>an interpreter when I can just get reimbursement of 75% of a plane ticket to
>attend a conference every two years.
>As a result of an agreement between the Catalan Federation for the Deaf and
>the University of Barcelona, we hope to be able to get the message through
>(and concrete results), but that won't probably solve the interpretation issue
>completely.
>Gaurav Mathur (MIT) suggested the possibility of creating a SL Linguistics
>Association that could deal with this issue to start with. This should be
>tackled during TISLR, but before that we need to find solutions for the whole
>community.
>We'll put all our efforts into trying to get as much funding as we can, but in
>order to apply for it we need to have a tentative but concrete budget, and
>interpretion will be the biggest part of it. So we need to reach a consensus
>as soon as possible. My personal take is that if the conference is not
>accessible to all participants, it shouldn't take place. But we won't give up
>that easily! Please keep on posting!
>
>And thanks for the feedback!
>
>Josep


--

___________________________________________

Carol A. Padden, Professor
Department of Communication, Mail Code 0503
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0503

858.534.7571 tty
858.822.5223 voice
858.534.7315 fax

cpadden at ucsd.edu