Understanding the World of Sign Language Interpretation
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- When most people think of sign language interpretation, they often regard American Sign Language as the universal language for the deaf and hard of hearing.
- However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Just like spoken languages around the world, every country has their own form of sign language adapted from their unique spoken language and culture.
- A study conducted by National Geographic found that there are at least 300 different sign languages actively used today around the world to meet the needs of over 72 million deaf or hard-of-hearing users.
- Because every country has their own form of sign language, interpreting services and professional ASL interpreters who attempt to communicate with someone who uses a different sign language will have difficulty understanding local signs and gestures.
- As a result, professional sign language conference interpreting solutions are often required in international environments where business is conducted between hearing, hearing-impaired, and deaf clients of different languages and cultures
- International standards for sign language interpreting.
- Despite there being over 300 different forms of sign language, there is a universal sign language created in 1951 that it is now used for simultaneous interpreting at international events such as the Deaflympics and the World Federation of the Deaf.
- This language, International Sign (IS), is the silent counterpart to other languages intentionally created to facilitate better communication between different communities, such as Braille for the blind and Esperanto for those who use spoken languages around the world.
- However, despite strong efforts to add sign language to the universal list of languages, there is no officially recognized global sign language enshrined in law today.
- As a result, there are no international regulations regarding how companies or individuals should communicate when two different sign languages are in use during business meeting interpreting.
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