Hello from a future interpreter!

[Amphigorey]

I just found these boards and I wanted to say hello to everyone. I'm currently working on my ASL degree with an eye towards becoming an interpreter, eventually at Disney. The program I'm in is great; the entire faculty is Deaf, so we really get the whole language immersion thing.

I'm also a seasonal CM (sometimes at the Land and sometimes at the Tower of Terror) and I love having my language pin because Deaf guests know they can come up and talk to me - and they do!

Anyway, I'd love to hear about your experiences with interpreters at WDW and Disneyland. WDW's services seem to be more extensive; I was at Disneyland recently and I asked for a schedule of interpreted shows, and they said they didn't have one because interpretation was only by request a week in advance. Very different from WDW, where even the Land has scheduled interpretation!

 

[SueM in MN]

You will find a couple of people here with a wealth of information, noteably Talking Hands and Mazzy.
I wish I knew more sign. My DD has cerebral palsy and does do some signing because she can't speak. She sort of modifies the signs to match her fine motor skills, so it's not real understandable to people who really sign. I'd do fine asking if someone wants hot dogs, eggs or milk, but not a whole lot more than basic survival.

 

[Talking Hands]

Where are you training? I am at MDCC in Miami. I am currently interpreting but also in a training program because I want to get certification. I am also hard of hearing and use interpreters when needed. I really enjoy the interpreters at WDW. They are all good and some are really great.

 

[pwcarlson]

I am a parent of a deaf young adult. We have been going to WDW since 1986, way before ADA. We kinda plodded along, taking what we could from the Disney experience. Our DD is very visual so most of the rides were fine, she could figure out what was happening during the ride. On our first visit whan she was not quite 3 and still using baby sign, her first character we ran into in MK was Donald Duck. We had invented name signs for each of the main characters so I was explaining who this thing was standing there to her in sign when 'he' noticed us. He can over to us and sign to her ' YOU DEAF' and told her 'he' was deaf too. I am not sure if 'he' was but you could imagine her face lit up with delight. They had a long conversation. Discussed each other ages, names etc. People around us just stood and watch these two talk and did not complain about the monopoly of Donald. That person playing Donald on that hot hot July morning still holds a place in my heartall these years. Showed to her the importance of communication.
Anyways, we have never seen any of the shows. Not even any that were interpreted. Where do you get the list of those things that are interpreted? Are they on special days or times? I would love to see a interpreted show. I bet those are great.
I am so very please to see the captions on alot the the TVs in the pre-show areas. But I wish they would just leave the captions on and not require us to get a remote to turn them on.

 

[teri]

pwcarlson, there is a link to Lisa's Deaf Access FAQ on my Disabilities FAQ page. It includes tables of interpreted show schedules.

 

[Amphigorey]

Talking Hands - I'm at Vista College in Berkeley. It'll be another year before I have the ASL degree, and then I can start an interpreting program, probably at Ohlone. What's the training at MDCC like, and what does MDCC stand for?

pwdonaldson, what a great Donald story! That's the kind of thing I like to hear.

You can get a list of interpreted attractions at Guest Services. Most are at specific days and times - the Land, for example, had interpreters available every Tuesday and Sunday (I think) at noon, so it's not just shows that are interpreted. Go see the shows! They're wonderful! My favorite is the Hunchback of Notre Dame at the Studios.

(By the way, here's the sign for Epcot if you don't already know it: both hands in an E describe a circle, then into P-shapes at the base, separating. It's in the shape of Spaceship Earth.)

 

[Talking Hands]

MDCC is Miami Dade Community College in Miami , Florida. Our program is an AA degree but I am not actually going for a degree as I already have my BS. Our teachers are a mix of Deaf and Hearing. All the hearing are CSC or above certified through RID (old system) or NAD level 5. All classes above ASL 2 are voice off which I love except of course sign to voice. I am a part of ASL Club and joining FRID and TRIFRID. Probably join RID as a student also.
Am also part of the local deaf community and active in Deaf Ministry at my church. In fact breaking my leg was a result of hurrying to get ready to leave for a Deaf Church in West Palm Beach to do drama in ASL.
Have you met Mark Jones? He is such a nice person. Also have you met any of the interpreters. I honestly have only met one I am not comfortable with. That doesn't mean he is a bad interpreter, only our personalities don't mesh. He is the only one I will ask Mark not give me if I am doing a tour or talk.
I already know the areas I can interpret are limited. Conventions no way. But there are pleny of areas I can work where I won't have a problem.

 

[Talking Hands]

MDCC is Miami Dade Community College in Miami , Florida. Our program is an AA degree but I am not actually going for a degree as I already have my BS. Our teachers are a mix of Deaf and Hearing. All the hearing are CSC or above certified through RID (old system) or NAD level 5. All classes above ASL 2 are voice off which I love except of course sign to voice. I am a part of ASL Club and joining FRID and TRIFRID. Probably join RID as a student also.
Am also part of the local deaf community and active in Deaf Ministry at my church. In fact breaking my leg was a result of hurrying to get ready to leave for a Deaf Church in West Palm Beach to do drama in ASL.
Have you met Mark Jones? He is such a nice person. Also have you met any of the interpreters. I honestly have only met one I am not comfortable with. That doesn't mean he is a bad interpreter, only our personalities don't mesh. He is the only one I will ask Mark not give me if I am doing a tour or talk.
I already know the areas I can interpret are limited. Conventions no way. But there are pleny of areas I can work where I won't have a problem.
Oh, interpreting at EPCOT is Tuesday and Friday. And you can always email Mark Jones for a schedule 2 weeks before you go and he will email it back to you. Also any special requests that you are interested in like pin talks but I usually give him more than 2 weeks notice.

 

[Amphigorey]

Yep, I've met Mark Jones - he's the one who tested me for my ASL pin. You're right, he is ridiculously nice. I'm glad to hear that you've had such good experiences with the WDW interpreters. I've met a few in passing, but I haven't really had much opportunity to talk to them much, since I met them while we were both on the job. I loved when they came on my boat, though, and they were all very nice.

What kind of interpretation work do you do?

 

[Talking Hands]

I do church interpreting and I interpret for my deaf consultant at Tupperware meetings and for our mamager. Also I substitute in the educational setting as both teacher and interpreter but not at the same time.

 

[Talking Hands]

I am curious what level you were when you took the ASL test from Mark? My daughter will be a CM in the fall and signs. She will be in entertainment at Tokyo Sea. I'm wondering if she should try to get her badge if the opportunity presents itself.

 

[Amphigorey]

Congratulations to your daughter! Tokyo DisneySeas sounds like an amazing park.
How did she get the opportunity to go to Japan?

For the ASL test, she needs to have fairly basic skills. If she's taken and passed ASL 1 (which since she's your daughter I'm sure she has equivalent skill! ), she can probably get the pin. The idea is to make things efficient and easy for the Deaf guests, so if you have enough ASL to communicate basic concepts (i.e., what time is it, how much does that cost, where's the restroom, what time is the 3 o'clock parade) and you can do it better than another CM might with pen and paper, you qualify for the pin. It's not a totally easy test, though; one of my co-CMs took it and didn't pass.

I would love to have a nametag full of language pins like some of the Guest Relations CMs do! I've studied French, Russian, and Spanish (and Latin but I doubt they make a pin for that ) but I'm terribly out of practice with all of them.

 

[Talking Hands]

She passed ASL 1 and 2 with A in both and still uses her sign to help others. She is very visual and will use classifiers to explain things. If she can draw it in the air she can communicate it. You should have seen her at WDW Gay Day taliking with these two guys as we waited for Brian, the interpreter, to get there for Jungle Cruise. She was definitely talking with them.

She auditioned for another job, Candlelight Processional last fall and the job was filled already but I guess she made a good impression because they called her for Tokyo Sea instead.

I have to admit that using ASL is much easier at times even as a hard of hearing person. When things get noisy I really have a difficult time understanding speech. I much prefer ASL at those times.

 

[signtalker]

Im an Interpreteur Myself BSL(british Sign Language), I will come and say hi when we are in WDW next May, my son is Hard of hearing, and it prooves very difficult as all things interpretured are ASL, so i never get time off even on Holiday LOL!!.
Jules

 

[Talking Hands]

Signtalker, sorry that everything is in ASL but it is the language of our deaf here. If the Brits had not been so closed with their techniques and sign when Thomas Galludet was in Europe and England then perhaps thigs would have been different and we would have a sign language in common.

 

[SueM in MN]

I'm curious, Lisa. How many different versions of signing are there for English speaking people?
Some of the signs (like "eat" for example) seem like they would be understood in any language. Are there totally different sign languages to coorespond withe the different spoken languages or are many of the signs the same?

 

[Amphigorey]

You might say that there's a different sign language for every country. British and American sign language are totally different languages, and I think it's the same with Australian sign language. I believe the Canadians use ASL, but I'm not positive. I don't know anything about British sign, so I don't know how much the vocabulary crosses over, but the alphabets and the grammars are not at all alike. ASL is more closely related to French sign language, actually.

There's also Signed Exact English, or SEE-sign, which is pretty much what it sounds like. Each sign corresponds to a word in English, and it follows English grammar. ASL isn't really much like English; in general, sentences are constructed by introducing the topic and then talking about it. For example, to say "When did you buy those shoes?" you would sign, "New shoes you buy when?"

 

[Talking Hands]

Sue,
That I know there is British Sign Language, Americian Sign Language, Australian Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language. Signs for some thing will be similar especially for things that are iconic such as eat but for abstract concepts they can be very different. Plus BSL and ASL have a completely different fingerspelling system.
Each county has its own system of sign language so Spanish Sign Language would be used in Spain but not in Cuba or Columbia or Peru. Sign Language is not universal.

When Gallaudet first went to Europe to investigate starting a school for the deaf, he first went to England where he was rebuffed by the people running the schools for the deaf there as they looked at is as a business and didn't want to devulge their secrets. He then went to France and learned for the Preist Abbe who had a school for the deaf under the Catholic Church. When he returned to the US it was with one of Abbe's student Clerc who was deaf himself. They established the first school for the deaf in Hartford, CT. ASL is based on the French sign system brought here by CLerc combined with the natural system of the deaf themselves already being used in the US. Which explains why ASL is more like LSF (Le Langue Signe Frances) that BSL (British Sign Language) BTW the Quebecoise have their own sing language called le langue signe quebecoise (LSQ) and so do the Mexican (MSL)

 

[Talking Hands]

Also it should be noted that SEE is not a sign language but a visual rendering of English or manually coded English. Using SEE is transliterating while using ASL is interpreting. And to be a good interpreter you need to be able to do both not just one.
Most state screenings require you be able to do both while RID gives separate tests for each but if you want CI/CT you must pass both. You can get CT or CI separately but I would think you would want full certification. NAD I am not sure. Have to ask my ASL teacher who is a NAD5. Ethics teacher is CSC under the old RID system.

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the history lesson.I'm interested in sign since my DD has used it for the past 13 years. She's mostly using ASL signs, but in the SEE manner. I'm afraid if I signed to someone who used ASL they would think I was completely illiterate. I know that when DD was in a class that had an ASL teacher/interpreter when she was about 6, the interpreter said she could see that my DD was signing, but she couldn't understand what DD was saying.