WASLI 2023
We are excited to be able to reveal the keynote speakers for the WASLI 2023 conference.
Day one keynote Shaping a resilient future: Which way Africa?
Leonida Kaula and Washington Sati Day two keynote Korea: A journey through time, diversity of society, and the diversity of sign language interpretation support
Seung-il Byun and Ahn Seok-jun
Early Bird deadline 31 Dec 2023
It won't be long before 2023 is upon us, which means the WASLI conference year is right around the corner. We are excited to be in Asia just before the WFD Congress on Jeju Island in South Korea. We are looking forward to welcoming many people from near and far.
As you can imagine, the wheels are spinning behind the scenes, but we are pleased to be able to share some of the highlights. The programme has been released to give you a clearer picture of the contributions from around the globe, and can be found at:
Day three keynote Collaboration between the Deafblind and sign language interpreters in Korea
Lydia Koh and Se-woong Yoon
WASLI 2023 programme
We have also included information about the keynote speakers who will be presenting on the three days of the conference.
The early bird deadline will soon be upon us so please do register for the conference at: WASLI 2023 registration
WASLI - web developments
Susan Emerson, Vice President
The revamped WASLI website is due to go live in January 2023.
IS version web development
Susan Emerson and Arunas Brazinskas have spent the last five months in consultation with our deaf web developer,
4th WASLI Latin American and Caribbean ( LAC ) Conference Nov 15-18, 2022, Havana, Cuba Report
Christie Hoeksema from Canada.
In this time, we have carefully defined the scope of our website, focussing on functionality, content and accessibility.
We are pleased with the draft content plan that will see the website easier to navigate, more visual and feature more sign language.
Watch out for the new website going live!
WASLI donation?
You can give the gift of WASLI all year round! You can make a donation through our PayPal Donation button: wasli.org/donation
Or donate via bank transfer - if so please contact our Treasurer
LAC Conference Report - in IS
WASLI Representative Dr. Debra Russell, Honorary President
Thank you to Miriam Meneses and her team of volunteers from the Cuban Deaf Society for their hard work in organizing this conference which included face to face participation and online presentations and reports.
It was a pleasure to attend and present the opening keynote entitled ‘Our Interpreting World: Changes, Challenges and Creative Opportunities’. Our interpreting practices have shifted dramatically over the global pandemic and while many events are now providing interpreting services virtually, we must not lose our connection to the local and national Deaf community in which we are embedded.
The conference was an excellent example of collaboration among Deaf teachers of sign language, who had their own dedicated track of presentations beginning after the opening keynote, and interpreters focused on interpreter development. There were 23 presentations given over the conference, and regional reports from WASLI’s national interpreter organisations.
There were also three other keynote presentations offered by Dr. Rayco H. González- Montesinos from Spain on strategies used by Spanish sign language interpreters, while Dr. Rene Gonzalez Puerto from Mexico addressed bilingual Deaf education practices and Marcel Garcia Hernandez, WASLI representative from Colombia delivered a presentation on ethics.
To each of the presenters, thank you for sharing your research, insights, and stimulating our brains. To each of our hard-
ISAAB - new Chair
WASLI is proud to announce the appointment of a new Chair of the ISAAB:
Carol-lee Aquiline
Carol-lee is an accredited WFDWASLI IS interpreter with many years experience as an interpreter, in the US and across the globe.
What are the next steps?
Carol-lee will transition into the post and work with our office support to ensure that we can run two Calls for Applications on a yearly basis.
As the Chair of ISAAB, comprised of a WFD and WASLI representative, the goal will be to recruit both an Accredited and a Pre-Accredited Interpreter representative to serve on ISAAB.
Moving forwards we should be able to review and update policy. And to more widely engage in promoting best practice and the contracting of appropriately accredited IS interpreters.
Any questions? Please feel free to email Carol-lee (after she has settled in) at: is.accred.wasli@gmail.com
working leaders in the LAC region we thank you for your continued service in building strong organisations that collaborate with Deaf associations and accomplish great things.
There were many highlights (see the WASLI Facebook and Twitter accounts for posts) however the work of our Venezuela colleagues struck me as outstanding. Through collaboration with the government, the Deaf association and interpreters, Venezuela Sign Language is now the second language identified in the country’s constitution, leading to greater opportunities for Deaf people to access services and the need for exceptionally well- trained sign language interpreters.
The conference was attended by interpreters and Deaf sign language teachers, representing Cuba, Canada, Panama, Mexico, Spain, Colombia, and Guatemala. We were joined virtually by others from Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, and while Haiti could not join at all we were able to receive a report from them.
A team of International Sign interpreters provided exceptional service both on- site and virtually, and despite challenges with internet, we were all able to access the learning and interaction. Huge thanks to each of the interpreters for their volunteer contributions.
Next conference? Buenos Aires, Argentina – hope to see you there!
Arab region meeting of Sign Language interpreters
The Arab Regional Representative, Majdi Yaghi, reports that the region remains active and has recently established a WhatsApp group for the 22 Arab speaking nations, with representatives from 19 of the 22 countries already recruited.
ISO Expert Group
The ISO Expert Group continues to engage in the activities of the Technical committee (TC) 37 and the standards related to Language and Terminology.
We have had conversations with other stakeholders with representatives and who are experts in sign language interpreting.
TC 37 allies
We are fortunate that both our Honorary President Debra Russell and our European Regional Representative Prof Dr Christian Rathmann both serve on their national standards committees too.
TC 37 annual meeting
WASLI hopes to have representation at the TC 37 face to face meeting in Brussels, 11-16 June 2023.
Ideally we will be able to liaise with those serving on their national standards committees as well as the AIIC SLN to further our goals in this forum.
Can you serve on the ISO EG? As the terms of service for our interim chair Samuel Chew and others come to an end, we are looking for 'Experts' who can serve on our Expert Group
If you are interested please email: secretary.wasli@gmail.com
In our most recent meeting we discussed the demographics of our national deaf communities, the provision of interpreting services, how this is paid for, and the number of professional interpreters there are (deaf and hearing), as well as remote interpreting services, etc.
The discussions extended over several hours and it was good to see many deaf people involved in the discussions. This lead to us considering our next meeting being a two and a half hour training workshop on ‘What do we mean by Deaf interpreter?’
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the WASLI Deaf Interpreter Advisor - Arunas Brazinskas. His support, ideas, and advice enabled the smooth running of the zoom meeting. The collaboration has also been highly beneficial to me as a deaf interpreter.
The Arab region hopes to go from strength to strength with WASLI’s support.
A new regional association has recently been established by local interpreting communities of:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kirgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, with its headquarters being in Armenia, Yerevan - The Eurasian Association of Sign Language Interpreters.
The underpinning idea is to unite interpreting communities of the countries and support their development locally as this would enable the communities to act together in their strive for the rights of Sign Language interpreters and be heard by local governments. Liliya Ionichevskaya was chosen to be President of the Association. The Association has expressed its
Elections 2023
Remember that at the General Assembly in Jeju, all of the
Board including the:
Regional Representatives (one hearing and one deaf) and the Executive Board: President Vice-President Treasurer Secretary
Deaf Interpreter Advisor Swiss Board Member
willingness to become a member of WASLI.
EECAC's new cross -country interpreter association, EAASLI, had its first conference in December with the logistic support of WASLI and our EECAC WASLI representatives. They also took a moment to commemorate Anna Komarova.
WASLI 2022 - President’s report President's Report - in IS
Coming out of lockdown and beginning to engage in the wider world again has been interesting for WASLI. The Executive Board continues to meet monthly to focus on the daily business of the Association.
Moving to Switzerland and establishing our legal seat has also enabled the further engagement of office services based in Switzerland. We continue to organise our work, trying to better understand how we can improve the administrative processes for membership, banking, ISAAB support, and the WASLI conferences. This includes a Letter of Understanding with the IDA to undertake administrative work on a paid basis.
are up for election!
Some of the office holders are standing again; some posts will be vacant.
Interested in standing?
You need to be nominated by a National Member of WASLI and then, for:
Regional Representative are voted in by National Members (in good financial standing with WASLI) who belong to the Regions.
Executive Board members are voted in by National Members (in good financial standing with WASLI)
If you are interested please email: secretary.wasli@gmail.com
To better support that work we have moved our banking to Post Finance in Switzerland, which includes having a credit card (CHF) and accounts for ISAAB ($USD), as well as a general account ($USD) and a conference account ($USD). The PayPal accounts have been directed to the appropriate accounts and we continue to explore effective ways of fiscal management.
We continue to struggle to transfer the funds from the UK bank account at HSBC. Our goal is to ensure that this money is transferred within this term of office. It may well be that these funds are required to support the conference before the income from registrations balances that budget line.
We continue to seek sponsorship from partners and organisations. This is something that we would welcome support with. If you have expertise or contacts with medium to large multinational companies that would be willing to support WASLI please do make yourself known to our Treasurer Nigel Howard.
This year has been another consolidating period that has been fruitful. Now WASLI needs to continue to nurture our regions where much of our high impact work takes place.
Sign language interpreting is becoming increasingly established as a strong profession around the world. More regions are investing in formal education, training and continuous professional development. More recently the profession has also made strides towards the inclusion, recognition and formal training of deaf people who are or want to become translators or interpreters.
In some regions deaf and hearing sign language interpreters are trained jointly, in others there are separate programmes and pathways to accreditation. A common understanding is that at some point the profession needs to come together as one, independent of interpreters’ backgrounds, hearing status, or entry to the profession. Recently, in Belgium and Ireland – two countries where deaf and hearing interpreters are trained separately – workshops were organised with this focus on teamwork.
Belgium
In the North part of Belgium, the formal training of deaf people to become sign language interpreters or translators started recently (2022). The course, organised by KU Leuven University is a 1,5-year programme and the deaf students are currently in their final 6 months of training:
https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/.../tolk-vlaamse-gebarentaal
Together with Tenuto (an organisation offering continuous professional development for sign language interpreters in Flanders) KU Leuven organised a full-day workshop for the deaf soon- to-be graduate interpreters and hearing sign language interpreters.
In total 19 deaf students and 16 hearing interpreters joined for a full day getting to know each other. They engaged in discussions about defining of the profession, issues of gatekeeping, and did active roleplays. The day was facilitated by two deaf and two hearing teachers/ interpreters. The aim was primarily to increase interpreters’ awareness about deaf and hearing interpreting teamwork. At the end of the day the overall feedback was that working together in these types of safe settings will encourage and facilitate actual collaboration in real life settings. The participants also offered topics for future
Paving the way for a strong, collaborative profession: examples from EuropeWASLI Newsletter Dec-22 Paving the way article - in IS
workshops such as: use of strategies when co-interpreting, how to offer feedback as co-interpreters, and more open discussions.
In the South part of Belgium, a similar training for deaf people who wish to become interpreters/ translators is underway. This will be organised by University Saint Louis Bruxelles, University of Namur, and Toulouse University Jean Juares (under Erasmus +). The Flemish example will be taken on board to create strong collaborations between deaf and hearing interpreters.
Ireland
In 2020 the Centre for Deaf Studies (CDS) developed and ran a successful 12-month Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training course in Deaf Interpreting (DI). It was accredited by Trinity College Dublin and co-funded by Sign Language Interpreting Service and the Citizens' Information Board.
Twenty- three students graduated
Pandemic conditions and 12-month timespan notwithstanding, the training was an enormous success. However, one downside of the course taking place entirely online was that the roleplays did not truly mimic most real-world Deaf interpreter/hearing interpreter team situations. That is why we were delighted when further funding became available this past November for CPD training. My colleague Tracy Daly and I worked together to create an in-person team interpreting training for Deaf and hearing interpreters.
This training was important, as there are dynamics and challenges inherent in in-person Deaf/hearing team interpreting that should be addressed before an assignment begins. These include such issues as who leads the introductions, what kind of participant placement works best in certain settings, how interruptions and cross - talk are managed when the assignment is underway, and how to answer challenges or doubt about the need for a Deaf/hearing team.
The aim of the training was to introduce these issues through roleplaying various scenarios, then giving feedback and discussing as a group how things went and how they might be done differently.
I am of the strong belief that it is important for Deaf/hearing interpreting teams to work together to present a united front to ensure that the interaction goes as smoothly as possible. Imagine two trees standing near each other: Above the ground, they appear to be completely separate. Under the soil, however, their roots can intertwine, connect, and make each other stronger. If the interpreters' communication with each other is good, they can become virtually seamless as a team and can become as the two trees - invisibly connected and anchoring each other.
We hope to run similar trainings in future to accommodate all who wish to participate, particularly as the demand for Deaf/hearing interpreting teams is on the rise.
Teresa Lynch, Assistant Professor Trinity College Dublin, Centre
for Deaf Studies
Dr. Isabelle Heyerick, vice-president Tenuto vzw, Assistant Professor Trinity College Dublin, Centre for Deaf Studies
WASLI-WFD International Sign Interpreting Accreditation - Call for Applications
WASLI and WFD are pleased to announce that applications for both pre-accredited International Sign interpreters and accredited International Sign interpreters will open very soon - in January 2023.
You can apply for pre-accreditation or full accreditation as an International Sign interpreter between the following language pairs:
(spoken/written) English – IS and/or IS – English
(spoken/written) Spanish – IS and/or IS – Spanish
(spoken/written) French – IS and/or IS – French
For Deaf interpreters working with a co-interpreter feed they can work from English/Spanish/French into your national sign language, and then you work from your national sign language into IS. Watch for details on how to apply via our Facebook, Twitter and our mailing list.
Something for the WASLI newsletter?
If you have something to share in the WASLI newsletter please let your Regional Representative and Regional Deaf Interpreter advisor know and we can share it with our global interpreting community.