SL Interpretation at TISLR

[Josep Quer]

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