Here’s one of those issues we often get little to no training on: Vera Institute’s Center on Victimization and Safety is hosting a webinar, Tips for Working with American Sign Language Interpreters. The session will be held July 22nd from 1-2:30 pm CT. Click through for details:
From the announcement:
Effective communication with a survivor is key to the safety planning process, the understanding and documenting of sexual violence or domestic violence events, and to the empowerment of survivors in general. Communication is even more critical to a survivor who is Deaf, as it is the piece which is often missing or lacking before and after violence has occurred. Working with a Deaf survivor via a sign language interpreter can be seen as straightforward, cumbersome, daunting, or rewarding, depending on a number of factors. Oftentimes agencies are under-prepared to receive, elicit, and process an accommodation request for an interpreter, and are unfamiliar with best practices on how to work with interpreters. This webinar is geared to meet the needs of agencies who have partnered with interpreters in the past, and agencies building their competencies for potential requests in the future.
This webinar will focus upon:
• Culturally-unique aspects of the Deaf experience, including the wide variety of language usage in the Deaf community;
• Accommodations that are English-based, and when those may be appropriate;
• Approaches to locating qualified, trauma-informed interpreters; and
• A variety of strategies to consider when working with sign language interpreters, including first person/third person interpretation, seating/lighting, debriefing, and other survivor-centered approaches to the work.