Interpreting at TISLR 8, Barcelona 2004

[Ulrike Zeshan]

Dear all,

I would like to pick up on another point that Paddy raised only briefly,
that is, the ASL vs BSL vs other sign languages issue:

>For myself - although from UK - I dont have especial demands for BSL
>to be an official language of the conference, although I agree these
>[ie asl vs bsl vs etc etc] are all still very tricky issues to decide
>upon - because once we do so we will make a decision that will affect
>the entire deaf world for ever, and from which there will be no going
>back. If we are concerned abt USA colonialism, and consequent damage to
>other sign languages, then we know that this decision is a tough one.
>This issue is not my main focus here therefore.

As some of you may be aware, I mostly work with deaf communities in
developing countries, so this question is very much on my mind. One problem
I had with the Amsterdam document when I first saw it was the effect it
would have for deaf people in developing countries who will be more and
more likely to be able to participate in these conferences in the future.
And from our point of view, if you don't mind, the Amsterdam proposal
effectively means that those deaf people who are already most able to pay
for interpreting get the free service while those who are least able to pay
get nothing (I am leaving aside, for the moment, the valid issue of shared
responsibilities for interpreting). Deaf people from the developing
countries where I have worked, and, if I am not mistaken, from many other
countries, do NOT understand ASL or BSL, or even International Sign, for
that matter. So what to do? I don't have a ready answer and I agree fully
with Paddy that it is a 'tricky issue' and a 'tough decision'. But I would
be happy it if the needs of deaf people from developing countries could be
considered in any solution that we will come up with in the end. I
appreciate the current organizers' approach to discuss these things very
early in the planning stage, I think it is the right thing to do! Good on
ya, as we say in Australia ;)

Ulrike


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Dr. Ulrike Zeshan
Research Centre for Linguistic Typology
Institute for Advanced Study
La Trobe University
Victoria 3086, Australia
ph. +61-3-94796420
fax +61-3-94673053
u.zeshan at latrobe.edu.au
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