Language policy at TISLR 8

[Josep Quer]

Language policy at TISLR 8

The local TISLR 8 Organizing Committee will strive to make the event
accessible to all those interested in attending.

Given that English is a well-established spoken language in this sort of
international scientific event, it will be the only official spoken
language. No natural signed language has acquired such a status, so in
accordance with the spirit of the Amsterdam Manifesto
(http://www.ea.nl/EUDmail/amsterdam_manifesto.htm), the organization
will try to secure interpretation for ASL, BSL and the local sign
language (LSC, Catalan Sign Language), as well as the sign language used
in Spain outside Catalonia (LSE, Spanish Sign Language). Other possible
SL interpretation needs in the programme will also be addressed to the
extent possible .

In order to make this policy feasible, no parallel sessions will be
organized.

The registration fee is understood as a way to share responsibility for
interpretation costs among all participants.

Nonetheless, a major effort is being made in order to get outside
funding for the costs of interpretation. Moreover, we seek collaboration
from groups or individuals coming from countries where funding might be
obtained for this purpose. One such attempt has been already made with
respect to ASL: Prof. Richard Meier (University of Texas, Austin) has
submitted a proposal to the US NSF to support 6
ASL intepreters; we will not know whether his proposal will be funded
until much later in the Spring (questions concerning ASL interpreting
can be directed to him  <rmeier at mail.utexas.edu>). We urge other
prospective participants to contact the organizing committee about the
possibility of obtaining funding for interpretation of their SL at the
conference <tislr8th at fil.ub.es>. We need to make an inventory of the
sources for interpreter funding that exist at the countries of origin
and to take the required actions.

The interpretation of SLs other than LSC and LSE will be coordinated by
Esther de los Santos edls at eresmas.com

The coordination of LSC and LSE interpretation will be in charge of Eva
Mar Mß  Rondoni coordilsnacional at wanadoo.es