Thursday's 8:30-10 AM Workshops

Submitted by NAD Conference [1] on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 14:46 Blog:

• NAD Conference [2]

Conflicts Between Interpreters and Consumers: When You've Tried Everything
David Bowell, Matthew O'Hara, and Pamela Whitney
There are situations where deaf people or even interpreters themselves want to make an ethical complaints against interpreters who are members of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). The presenters discussed several strategies and emphasized mediation as an essential solution to ethical complaints. Some interpreters are unsure of what they are expected to do, because some deaf people like to voice for themselves. What do you do in situations like that? RID suggests you ask, whether you are the client or the interpreter, what the expectations are. Some interpreters do fabulously on the day of their certification testing, but in general they are not so swell. In situations like this, they may be re-tested to validate their qualifications. For more information, email ethics@rid.org [3].

Current State of Affairs - School Boards and Schools for the Deaf
Philip Bravin, Alexis Kashar, Chris Wagner, and Sonny Wasilowski
This panel of officers and members of various school boards across the country addressed communication, literacy, and budget issues. Kashar mentioned that at her school, New York State School for the Deaf, only 1.9% of her students have deaf parents. Other schools have similar statistics, and have issues with teacher-to-student ratios. Ratios at each school are determined according to their budgets, and the people who "control the pursestrings" are the ones to address -- namely, the state governments. The panel also discussed how they recruit more deaf members to sit on boards of deaf schools.

Whose Voice Is It?
Darlene Goncz Zangara
First, what is voice? Voice is our ability to communicate our cultural identity. Sustaining our voice takes some work, but we must continue to share our stories that resonate with people. The deaf community cannot stand alone -- we must build allies and relationships with hearing individuals and organizations. Only then will our stories have an impact on them, and our Deaf voices will find a place in the mainstream paradigm. To do this, deaf people must reconstruct our cultural lens and our history to express our stories in a language that mainstream society (hearing people) are accustomed to hearing. We must first know and understand ourselves before we can express our voice in mainstream society.