Intro Paragraph (Project 1)

American Sign Language has been around for over two hundred years, and has been used commonly among Deaf and Hard of Hearing people for centuries. Only recently has the language, and the culture, started to make its way into the lives of the “hearing world.” After taking my first year of ASL in high school, I fell in love with the language and the culture, and wanted to help bridge the gap between the two worlds. I wanted to become an interpreter. While not all ASL interpreters are deaf or Hard of Hearing themselves, many are welcomed with open arms into the community. They can be viewed as a smaller community, within the larger deaf community, that help to make the “hearing world” more accessible and easier to connect with. Negative views towards the deaf community have decreased significantly, however, there are still some hearing people that view deaf people as incapable and unintelligent. There are also a lot of people that simply don’t understand deaf people and their culture. Through interpreting, I want to be able to educate the “hearing world” more on deaf culture, establish a general understanding between the two worlds, and make life easier, and more accessible for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. However, the first step to succeed with all of that is to become an interpreter. The process of becoming an interpreter for American Sign Language is one that requires lots hard work and dedication. It is no easy task, and there is even more than just the language that one needs to know if they would like to actually be successful in pursuing it as a job. Through my research, I uncover how one is able to become a successful American Sign Language interpreter.