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Sign language students getting the message

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By Stephanie Rodriguez

A third-grader looks anxiously around his new classroom. A smile slowly lights up the boy's face as his sign language interpreter enters the room. The deaf boy's silent world is filled with a communication he can understand.

As this scene indicates, there is an extensive need in the Central Valley for sign language interpreters, said Dr. Paul W. Ogden, and Fresno State's Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Studies is helping fill the need. The department is the first in California to offer a B.A. degree in interpreting, and the first students will graduate in May 2002.

Students participating in the interpreting program must complete 47 units, including six sign language classes to satisfy the option. Ogden, professor of communication disorders and deaf studies, wrote the course proposals and designed the curriculum.

Many school districts in the Central Valley employ interpreters for deaf or hard of hearing students. Nonprofit agencies, social services, the Internal Revenue Service and community colleges are also in need of interpreters, said lecturer Bryan Berrett. He is the coordinator for the Interpreting program, which has worked with several organizations throughout the Central Valley.

Alyssa Long, a Interpreting Education major, said that business and government agencies are seeing a need for sign language interpreters.

"More and more people are seeing the need for interpreters at events, meetings, offices, parties, appointments, etc., and so it is important that as the demand for interpreters increases, the supply of qualified interpreters also increases," said Long.

Back to University Journal, 12/10/01 Issue