On-Demand: ASL Interpretation Services

Transcript for ASL Interpretation Services Panel Discussion

Opening

Lori Litz

Hi everyone. Welcome to today's Accessibility.com event, ASL Interpretation Services. My name is Lori. I am the Director of Conferences at Accessibility.com, and we're so excited to have you here today. We're utilizing a new format for this series. We're using Zoom Events, so you should have noticed you entered in through a lobby where you saw some announcements. There's an expo floor you can go visit, you can see bios on the speakers... You can get all sorts of information ahead of the event starting. And that lobby remains open for about 30 days after this event occurs. Our event series this year will focus on helping you find the right vendor for your accessibility services needs. 

Today, like I mentioned earlier, is on ASL, American Sign Language, and we have a great panel of speakers today led by our President, Mark Shapiro. We have Scott Ready and KathleenO’Regan. They'll be discussing ASL, what it is, and what you should consider when selecting a vendor to provide those services. Then we're going to take a look into our sponsor today, Deaf Services Unlimited, with Carly Anderson who will give you a little bit more information on their company. You can also visit them on the Expo floor and they will be having a breakout session after this one that you can check out. For today's event,

it is recorded. So that recording will be available for you this evening. You'll receive an email from me with instructions on how to access it. If you have any questions about or for today's panel, you can go ahead and type those into the Q&A down at the bottom. Utilize the chat for networking and discussions amongst yourself, but type any questions for the panel into Q&A.

If we don't get to your questions live today, we will follow up with them. Anyways, here we go. Let's get started. Off to Mark, Scott, and Kathleen.

Presentation

Mark Shapiro

Thanks for joining us today to learn about how to select the right American Sign Language service for your business. I'm Mark Shapiro. I'm the President of Accessibility.com. I'm here today with Scott Ready and Kathleen O’Regan. Scott, can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Scott Ready

Sure. Be glad to. And again, thank you for coming and joining us today.

Scott Ready. I’m a CODA. And if you're not familiar with that term, that's a child of deaf adults, which means that my parents both deaf. And they were teachers at the Missouri School for the Deaf, which I had the awesome privilege of actually living on campus from the age of three until I was 13, which means that my community, my language, my best friends, my mentors were all from within that community.

I became a certified sign language interpreter when I was 16. So let me do the math here. That would be 44 years now that I've been a certified interpreter, working in the field, in private practice, as well as a lot of other areas within accessibility. Another role that I had that's relevant to the topic here today is that I was also a department head for an interpreter training program where we were teaching students to become sign language interpreters.

So all of that said, I've had the joy of being in in the field, working in the field, training others to to also be professionals in this field of interpreting.

Mark Shapiro

Awesome. And Kathleen, what about your background?

Kathleen O'Regan

So I was always fascinated with the visual language and I started taking evening classes when I was a freshman in high school when I was 14. And one thing led to another. I met really awesome deaf people who took me under their wing and taught me their language and their culture, and I enjoyed every minute of it. When it was time to choose university or college,

I ended up at Northeastern University in the Interpreter Education program. And that's where I learned the larger context about social justice and access and ethical decision making and the value system that we as interpreters bring to each setting and how critical it is that we're mindful of the humans. And then it led me to different employment opportunities.

I've coordinated interpreting services for 20 years now. I've been a certified interpreter since the early 2000s, and I love this work. I love this conversation. I love coordinating effective services, and I love to see the magic that happens when you find that right sync and now I work a lot with the federal government and companies that do business with the federal government.

And I have a consulting company where we support companies and organizations in creating effective communication access. So thank you so much for having me.

Mark Shapiro

Kathleen, can you share with us what is American Sign Language and how popular is it?

Kathleen O'Regan

American Sign Language is a full, robust language. American Sign Language is the language of the American Deaf community. It is exactly like any other language in the world. It's got all the linguistic features, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics. I would have to triple check my references, but I think it's the third most common language in America.

Mark Shapiro

Scott In a business setting, when should ASL be used?

Scott Ready

Great question. In a business setting it, there's a couple of different routes that need to be taken into consideration. Let's start, first of all, as an accommodation. When you have a deaf employee or a deaf consumer that is wanting to engage with your business or work effectively at your business, then it's provided as an accommodation in order for the communication to take place.

The other avenue that we also want to to take a look at is when a business is providing public access to have it be a conference, have it be a their marketing materials, their social media, all of those public access to that content needs to be accessible. More... The that's that's the important part of all of this is making sure that that effective communication takes place and that's actually what's in the laws too.

Mark Shapiro

Speaking of laws.... What are the specific laws, requirements, recommendations for businesses? Scott?

Scott Ready

Sure. I'd be glad to take a look at that. Well, first and foremost is the Americans with Disabilities Act that was passed in 1990. There's been additions to that, modifications made to that to bring it up to date. But overall, here in the United States, Americans with Disabilities Act. The presence... the the crux of the Americans with Disabilities Act is equal access.

How can an individual that has a disability have the equivalent experience to individuals that do not have a disability? Have it be a physical, have it be a digital, have it be a communication access. And you know, the topic here today is about sign language and interpreting. So if we look at the communication aspect of this, how can individuals with communication disabilities be able to access what's being communicated?

Then we also have the Rehabilitation Act, which covers government agencies. It covers employment. So any organization that receives government funding, and again, I'm simplifying this very much, but just just to keep it kind of basic and general here, any organization that receives government funding also is required to adhere to the Rehabilitation Act, which you might have heard of, Section 504, Section 508, those are all part of the Rehabilitation Act. And that means that they have to also provide a an effective way of communicating to individuals with disabilities.

Mark Shapiro

Okay. Are there any industry standards? Can anybody just pass them off as an ASL interpreter? Or is there some sort of a standard industry certification that's accepted? Kathleen? Why don’t you take that?

Kathleen O'Regan

The certification is offered by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, RID, which is the membership organization of sign language interpreters here in America. And the entity Casli offers a rigorous test. And people who are eligible to take that test, they sit for the test. It's a couple components. There's a written component for knowledge base. You understand the laws, you understand the implications, you understand the academic piece behind the interpreting.

But then also there's a performance portion of that test that includes ethical dilemmas as well. Often in requirements to work in different entities, RID Certification as is required. So yes, there are credentials. RID also for years and is now revamping the SCL, which is a legal specialization certification as well. And there are some states that have a mandate for interpreters who want to work in the courts system or in legal settings to be certified and hold their SCL certification.

Mark Shapiro

Is there a listing of these qualified people?

Kathleen O'Regan

Yes. Yes. There's a registry where you can go right to RID.org and click on find a member and there's all different checkboxes. You know, people who are members and identify as a legal interpreter or a medical interpreter or an educational interpreter. And you can you can whittle it down a bit to different markets.

Mark Shapiro

Scott, If I'm looking for a company, what criteria would I use to evaluate them, to evaluate the different vendors?

Scott Ready

Great question. And before we jump into the criteria, my recommendation would first be ask the person that's going to be the consumer of the services, make this consumer centric, but ask them what what are the needs? Because they're going to be the one that knows best as to why is needed in order to have effective communication.

And then as the consumer, they are also going to know the organization or the agency that's going to be in their region that is going to provide them the quality of interpreters that are necessary. Oftentimes the individual that is contracting with a service does not know sign language themselves. They are not proficient in the language. They don't understand the field of interpreting. The understanding how to be that cultural mediator between the two languages and culture.

And oftentimes we have seen very poor matches between a sign language interpreter and the needed recipient of that interpreting. So that's why I always go back to say, ask the employee. Where where have you had good experiences in obtaining a sign language interpreter? Oftentimes they will have interpreters that they prefer that are language models that match their language the best or their situation the best.

So they will even be able to recommend individual interpreters that work in the field or for an agency. So that would be my first recommendation is to always do that. Right now we're very fortunate that the National Association of the Deaf is in the process of setting out the criteria for organizations or agencies that are providing sign language, sign language interpreting.

There is an ethical component to providing sign language interpreting. And fortunately we have the National Association of the Deaf that's going to be able to set that criteria here very soon, and we'll be able to have a listing of those agencies that have been certified by the National Association of the Deaf. Again, the consumers of the interpreting services who best know what needs to be in place.

And then that will give us a very strong list of those agencies and organizations that we can go to.

Kathleen O'Regan

I'd like to add to that if I can. I 100% agree with Scott on this. It should be consumer focused and it alleviates a lot of pain points from a company or organization standpoint of accidentally bringing in either providers or using a company that's not reputable. And then it really impacts the experience and that's not what anybody wants to do.

We're humans. This is a very human experience. So you want to find the best fit for your event. You know, if it's a marketing event, you want somebody who's vivacious. You don't want somebody who's like, hmmm.... please buy our product. Deaf people aren’t going to buy your product, right? So so you really want to do a little bit of effort if depending on who your audience is to find that best fit.

And you can always ask questions. Nobody's ever offended.

Mark Shapiro

Right. What do companies typically charge for for services? What's sort of the range and prices and how are they charged? Is it different for in person, live, recorded? What have you sort of seen out there in terms of ranges of fees? Scott?

Scott Ready

Kate, I’ll let you... I’ll let Kate address that.

Kathleen O'Regan

Rates will vary depending on where you are in the country. We've noticed regional rate differences. There are there are ranges depending on specializations. There are you're going to have different rates and terms if it's a... Now let's start with a typical... Let's say you've got a town hall meeting and it's going to be 2 hours and you've got two deaf folks who live in the town.

Typically you're going to hire two interpreters, okay? Because and there's publications and studies on this. Cognitively we fatigue. So when you're listening to spoken English and you're doing all the cognitive things that are turning that into a three dimensional spatial language, it's work. It's work. And then when you're seeing the three dimensional spatial language and you're doing all the cognitive work and then you're putting it out in spoken linear language, it's work.

So about, the studies show about 20 to 25 minutes, the effectiveness of the interpretation starts to go down. So we team things. That's why you'll often see two interpreters at meetings. So that would be typical. Two interpreters. Two hour minimum. We're starting to see some three hour minimums. So two hour, three hour minimums is what I would be aware of.

And that's pretty typical. Let's say it's a four day conference and you've got ten deaf folks in attendance. You're going to need about 15 interpreters. And it's it's a that's a much larger scale event where you have

Mark Shapiro

15 different interpreters?

Kathleen O'Regan

One five. One five.

Mark Shapiro

Okay.

Kathleen O'Regan

You're going to have multiple sessions. You know, Bob's going to this session, Sally is going to this session. Chris going to this session. You've got people, right? So again, what's the experience? What's the equal opportunity? So to have the the same experience as anybody attending that type of event, it's a robust team. And if we all know conferences, they start in the morning and they go very late and there's all of these opportunities for networking.

And so you really want to make sure you have enough flexibility. So that's kind of a little bit of a scale. And depending on where you are in the country, it could be $55 an hour to $165 an hour. It really depends where you are. Metro areas are going to be more pricey.

Mark Shapiro

Are there any large companies that have a lot of employees that work with businesses? Or are most of what you're seeing small, you know, independent, more mom and pop type shops? In terms of vendors.

Scott Ready

There are some larger organizations that do provide sign language interpreters. There are some organizations that focus on just remote interpreting. There are some organizations that focus on both remote and in-person interpreting.

And then there are some organizations that that provide just in-person interpreting. Again, it's a variety of of options depending on what's needed. So it covers the whole gamut. There there are some very small organizations that service small locations, and then you get into your big urban areas and you'll have larger nationwide services or provide provision of services.

There's also some companies that are global that look at providing interpreting in multiple countries. So it really does cover the whole gamut there.

Mark Shapiro

Okay. Now we’re going to do a deep dive into Deaf Services Unlimited. For the next section, I want to thank Carly Anderson from Deaf Services Unlimited to help us out with our deep dive. Carly, can you tell us about Deaf Services Unlimited?

Carly Anderson

Sure. Deaf Services Unlimited, we formed in 1996. We started off as a sign language interpreting agency, so primarily providing onsite interpreting services. Through the years, we've added captioning services as well. Video remote interpreting services. We do quite a bit of consulting and training as well. So just kind of a wide array of communication access services that Deaf Services Unlimited provides.

We have a wide array of customers that we service and I think they range from government agencies either on the federal level or the state level. We work with a lot of higher education colleges, universities. We also work with a lot of commercial sectors too, in manufacturing, medical, industrial. We work with a lot of tech companies that are looking for their new advancement of software products to be accessible.

So you name the customer we've probably worked with with a similar one. And I think that's the beauty of our services as they can be tailored to whatever the deaf or hard of hearing person needs.

Mark Shapiro

What sets you apart from other competitors or even independent contractors?

Carly Anderson

Sure. I think of our tagline. It's go ahead, expect too much. And it's kind of a, you know, a cheeky term, but we really do pride ourselves in an exceptional customer client experience. So our entire team, I think goes above and beyond the call of duty all the time. So you're going to get an answered phone call, you're going to get a live person whenever you need us helping you through the process, answering questions, walking you through the steps and making it as easy as possible to provide that communication access that you need.

So that would be the first thing. I also think quality of services. We are extremely stringent in our quality and what we expect of all of our interpreters and our captioners and the service providers that we work with. So you're going to get high quality product and service delivery delivery as well as just customer service that we pride ourselves in that top, top level.

Mark Shapiro

Carly What should companies budget for this type of service?

Carly Anderson

That's a great question. I think I think it really depends on, of course, the volume or the scope of what you're needing. We can provide anywhere from a 30 minute video or remote interpreting appointment for a quick discussion that you need to have with a deaf or hard of hearing individual. Those services are always as needed. You only pay for the minutes that you need the service. On site is the same way. Those services are typically built in more of an hourly rate.

You can expect a two hour minimum for a reservation, so that's important to know, you know how time is reserved. But we also do a lot of contracting. So any time you are looking for maybe a more ongoing need or a regular need, there's discounts for all of those services depending on the volume that you're securing.

Mark Shapiro

All right, Carly, I really appreciate you allowing us to do a deep dive on your organization.

Carly Anderson

Absolutely. Thank you for your time.

Mark Shapiro

Sure. Thank you. All right. We have a bunch of questions from the audience. If we don't get any... if we don't get to your question, just email it in. We actually will have the full listings. We'll be able to contact you and answer the question. All right. First question, what would you recommend for an international company with Spanish, Japanese and English as the primary languages?

So, Scott, do you want to take it?

Scott Ready

Well, sure. So we're looking at the need for interpreters in a variety of languages. You might be able to have one organization cover all languages. You might end up having to contract with multiple organizations to be able to meet the need of those languages. When we're looking at both a spoken language and a visual language, one thing to clarify is that the visual language, the sign language, as in American Sign language, may be completely different than the spoken language.

So take into consideration that if you're having Spanish, for example, there are different Spanish sign languages depending on the country, the region. And so there are a lot of details that that need to be uncovered there in order to accurately provide effective communication.

Mark Shapiro

All right. Next question. What is a reasonable budget for an ASL interpreter for a two hour live event? Assuming they need to travel to the event?

Carly Anderson

Great question. Our pricing is based regionally, so depending on which Metro or city you're in, you can expect to pay anywhere from $100 to $200 per hour for that interpreter. Travel time... and those travel charges are typically billed at the same hourly rate of the interpreting services. So our team will always look for local interpreters that are in the area you need.

In those cases, there wouldn't be any travel. That's the nice thing. They're built into those minimums of the appointment. But if we do have to go outside of a surrounding area, we know that at what's called portal to portal. So the time that it takes the interpreter to leave, head to the appointment and then return back home is all billed at that same hourly rate.

Mark Shapiro

Do federal government announcements require ASL?

Kathleen O'Regan

Announcements? Is a bit vague for me right now, but I will specify that the White House is mandated for any press conferences to have ASL interpreters. There is a deaf interpreter who is a full time staff at the White House. Elsie Stecker, very cool individual and all of the press conferences out of the White House now is fully accessible, captions and ASL interpreting. And that was a result of COVID and the announcements not being accessible to the greater American public and the deaf American public and the NAD, NAD sued to mandate access.

So the White House. Yes. I, you know, federal agencies who employ deaf people, yes. You have to provide reasonable accommodations for your employees. That doesn't always mean ASL interpreters, right? It depends on who the employee is and what a reasonable accommodation is that lends effective communication.

Mark Shapiro

Okay. Is there an international version of sign language? Scott, why don’t you take this?

Scott Ready

There is. And where we see that mostly is in large international conferences. And the international sign language is not used in a daily conversation, but it is truly for an international conference platform so that they don't have to have 50 sign language interpreters and have that confusion of, my goodness, where do I look?

Mark Shapiro

Does closed caption eliminate the need for ASL? Let's... Carly, why don't you answer this one?

Carly Anderson

That's a great question. Closed captioning is provided in the same English word order form. So I would say that closed captioning is not a replacement for American Sign language. They are in two different languages, the English versus American Sign language. So somebody who uses American sign language is not necessarily going to be fully accommodated by that spoken English version.

A lot of times we run into that two people want to write notes back and forth. And while that can be a mode of communication if you need it, it's not always the most appropriate accommodation for somebody who's deaf who uses ASL. If there is a hard of hearing or a deaf individual that prefers English-based, either sign language or written English, then yes, closed captioning is oftentimes the only accommodation they need.

So again, it depends on your deaf or hard of hearing individual and being able to get that information from them so you're providing the most appropriate accommodation for them.

Mark Shapiro

Makes sense.

Closing

Lori Litz

And that's all we have time for today. Thank you Mark, Scott, Kathleen and Carly for fielding those questions and for your presentations today. We really appreciate your time and your dedication to such an important topic. Today's event was recorded and will be available this evening. I will send you an email with instructions on how to view. Up next, you can head back to the lobby and go join Deaf Services Unlimited in their breakout session for today.

You can also go to the Expo floor and visit the vendors that are out there. If we didn't get your question live today, we will follow up with it. We hope to see you back at the end of the month, Tuesday, February 27th, when we're going to dive into closed captioning services. Have a great rest of your day.

Transcript for Overcoming the ASL Interpreter Shortage Presented by Deaf Services Unlimited

Overcoming the ASL Interpreter Shortage Presented By Deaf Services Unlimited - Event Transcript

Brenna Thompson

Okay. I'm going to go ahead and get started. I think there might be a few more people rolling in.

So today we'll be talking about the ASL interpreter shortage that is currently going on in the United States and in several places abroad. They're also having shortages with interpreter with sign language interpreting as well. But we're going to specifically be talking about in the United States. My name is Brenda Thompson. I'm the director of business development at Deaf Services Unlimited.

You just heard in the first session from my colleague Carly Anderson. She is the Director of Operations here at Deaf Services Unlimited. And she was able to give you an overview of our company and our services and just answer a few questions. We're going to be talking a little bit more specifically, obviously, about the interpreter shortage. We'll be talking about the current status of the shortage, the impacts that it's having and the United States strategies that are used to overcome the interpreting shortage and the benefits of partnership, partnering with Deaf Services Unlimited and some of the strategies we use to ensure that services are available to you regardless of the resources in your area.

So just a little overview of the shortage we're currently experiencing. I know that the Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf was talked about and their certification in the previous session. So currently there are roughly 10,000 interpreters that are certified through RID and who are currently providing American Sign Language interpreting services in the United States. The resources can depend on your area.

So we have found that large metro areas usually have more resources than small rural areas, and there are also some areas of the United States that are a little bit more concentrated. So even some metro areas more might have more resources than others. And like I said, the rural areas are facing the greatest shortage. There might be rural areas where there are no certified interpreters.

We've seen from 60 miles to 100 miles can require quite a bit of travel just to get someone to your area, depending on where you're located at. So comparing that to the amount of deaf and hard of hearing individuals who use sign language in the United States, we know that there are 11 million Americans who consider themselves deaf or experienced serious difficulty hearing, and of those 11 million, 500,000 of them use American Sign Language every single day.

So if you think about the needs of those individuals, they might not just need one interpreter in a day. So if someone goes to work, they might need an interpreter at their job, say they're working as an electrician, they would need an interpreter who has a lot of knowledge in the electrical field. And let's say at the end of the day, they go to a doctor's appointment.

They would need to have a medical interpreter at that employee appointment that has the knowledge to communicate, facilitate communication between them and the doctor. And then that night they might have a event to go to and then they would need an interpreter who has the specific knowledge to interpret for that event. So of these 50 or 500,000 Americans, they have various needs throughout the day and they may require more than one interpreter.

So with these numbers, we can see that there's roughly 50 interpreters there. I'm sorry, there's roughly one interpreter for every 50 Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing and use American sign language, the ratio can vary depending on your area, and many areas find it very difficult to find in person sign language interpreters in their areas, 50 to 1 is obviously a big disparity.

We have to use all different kinds of strategies to try to meet the needs of these individuals. Considering how great the shortage is. So there are various aspects of this shortage. One that we want to avoid is limited access of effective communication for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. So if you have deaf or hard of hearing clients or colleagues, you definitely want to ensure that they do not have limited access to the things that they need throughout the day and the communication that needs to be taking place.

There are also delays for in-person interpreting services due to the shortage, and many organizations have challenges remaining ADA compliant. I know we talked about the Americans with Disabilities Act in our previous session and how important it is to make sure that we are creating effective communication when we need to. And the shortage definitely can create more barriers and create more difficulties for businesses and organizations that are trying to remain compliant and ensure effective communication.

So what is recommended to avoid these impacts and try to lessen them? The National Deaf Center recommends partnering with an agency to avoid service gaps during the interpreter Interpreter shortage. So that brings us to why should you choose Deaf Services Unlimited Deaf Services Unlimited has a national network of interpreters. So we have over 30 years of experience providing American Sign Language services in the United States.

Our owner and founder is Deaf of Deaf Services. Unlimited is Diana Kautzky. She is the she is a child of deaf adults. She is a CODA. So she has been a part of the deaf community her entire life. She has spent her life trying to create a bridge between deaf communities and hearing communities and ensure effective communication for both groups.

Over those 30 years, we have built a very large network of providers and resources, and we are able to leverage all of those resources to ensure that we are meeting the requests of our customers. We have over 1700 certified service providers throughout the United States. We also have established networks in every state. So regardless of where you are, we provide services there and we will do our best to meet your needs.

We are very experienced in metro areas and rural areas. We're very familiar with the challenges that can come with not having interpreters in your area, not having enough interpreters in your area, or maybe just not having access to the kind of interpreter that you are requiring. As we heard in the previous session, we do offer video, remote interpreting services and the service we actually helped pioneer several years ago.

We were one of the first companies to offer video remote interpreting services. Obviously, when the pandemic came around, there was a great need to transfer a lot of onsite interpreting services to video, remote interpreting services. And because we had experience in that sector, we were able to very smoothly transition over to video remote interpreting services. So this is a service that we have really been able to gain a lot of experience in and have been able to really set the standard for how the service should be provided.

We can provide this service as an alternative when on site interpreting is not available. So if the situation allows, we have a professional coordination staff that can really help transfer services from in-person to video, remote interpreting if needed. We're also able to provide on demand video remote interpreting services when needed. This could be because maybe an in-person provider calls in sick has a change in availability, or maybe you weren't planning on needing interpreting services that day and all of a sudden now you do have a needs.

We're able to get you connected in a matter of minutes and make sure that there's no lapse in service and that the person that you are needing to communicate with, you are able to. Our coordination team also is very experienced in all different kinds of platforms that are used for video remote interpreting services, and they're available to troubleshoot or provide technical assistance as needed.

So at DSU, we also like to boast our 98% fill rate. So of all of the requests we receive for interpreting and other services, we are able to fill 98% of those. We employ a comprehensive and proactive approach. So like I said, we have a huge network that we use to provide in-person services and we also have a large network of interpreters that provide video remote interpreting services when in-person services are not available.

We are meticulous with our scheduling and we have very prompt communication. We have a large coordination team that is available that really does an amazing job of ensuring that there are no lapses in coverage and that communication is provided very quickly. If there are any issues there, like I said, available to assist and to overcome any barriers that might be experienced.

We also match the right interpreter for the requirements of the assignment. So we don't just have the next available interpreter assigned to your appointment. We find the interpreter that has the right skill set, that has experience in the industry that you are in and is ready to provide effective communication. A lot of our clients have ongoing needs for interpretation, so they might have a deaf employee or a deaf client that they work with regularly.

They may host events that they like to provide open access to for the deaf and hard of hearing communities. So we really specialize in managing schedules. We are able to manage ongoing schedules. Once you turn the schedule in to us, we do everything from there. We are able to provide consistency. A lot of the times you're wanting to work with the same interpreter.

If you have a weekly meeting that needs to be interpreting, interpreting it, we can provide consistency of services there to ensure that the interpreters you're working with are the same and that they know the jargon in your industry or the agreement acronyms used at your company, things like that to ensure effective communication. And we also are able to handle changes in provider availability or spontaneous needs.

So say you have a weekly meeting and you have the same interpreter every week and they for some reason aren't available. One week we will be able to go in and find someone who can provide services for that session as like a one off and make sure that they have all the prep materials they need to provide the best service possible.

So just a quick overview of the things that we just talked about. Like I said, we have 30 years of experience providing interpreting services. We have a large network that we have been able to put together over those 30 years. And with that we are able to offer in-person interpreting services and also on demand video, remote interpreting services for last minute needs or when in-person interpreting isn't available.

We have a professional coordination team that will handle every detail for you. And we also, like I said, have a 98% fill rate for all requests. So some strategies that can be used on your end. We like to tell our clients to request services as soon as a need arises. So as soon as you know you will need an interpreter, let us know.

The industry standard for onsite interpreting services is about two weeks notice. So if you are not able to give that much notice, there may need to be alternative services that are considered. We will do our best to fill any onsite interpreting request with our resources, but we find that most interpreters book their schedules out at least two weeks in advance.

So if you give us less advance notice than that, we will be trying to find someone who had a last minute cancellation and has the right expert knowledge for your situation. So that's when the pool of interpreters we are selecting from really gets a lot smaller. So whenever you can provide advance notice, we know it's not available, it's not possible all the time.

We really recommend that you do that. Checking with the deaf client to see if alternative services are an option. So the person who will be using the services, it's always great to ask them if they are requesting in-person services if that service isn't available. Will video remote interpreting services work for them? Just checking in with them and seeing if they feel comfortable and anticipating that there might not.

There might need to be an alternative service used if an in-person services are the only option. It's also great to ask for alternative availability. So if someone needs a in-person interpreter for an appointment that's coming up in a couple of days, maybe asking if they have time in the next week or two weeks that they might be able to reschedule for in case an in-person interpreter is not available.

So I know in the previous session we talked a little bit about our services and we do offer in-person interpreting services like we've said, and video remote interpreting and support services. Along with that, we do offer court captioning services, so that would be real time translation For any event, our captions are certified through the ncra. So if you have someone who is deaf or hard of hearing but doesn't use American sign language, this is a great service for them because they'll be able to have a real time transcript of the communication that's happening provided in English.

We also offer post-production, interpreting and captioning. So if you're looking to make videos on your website accessible or other content that you might have on social media, we do offer post-production, interpreting and captioning so we can add, interpreting or captioning to any of your videos after the fact. So a lot of projects that we do are for events like this one.

If someone wanted to hold a webinar and then they want to post that webinar to their video or to their website, excuse me, we would be able to add interpreting to that video to make it more accessible in the first session. That was a DACA interpreter that was interpreting the session. So you got to see our interpreters in action there.

But there's also the option to add that interpreting after the event as well. And the same goes for our captioning services. We also offer deaf culture training so this training can be done in-person or online. We have a online deaf culture training that is a five modules 11 lessons and it talks about the history of the deaf community.

It also talks about terminology and norms in the deaf community. It talks about effective communication, inclusion, ASL, interpreting captioning, how those services are used. And it also and it includes the perspectives of deaf individuals. So you can hear more about their community directly from them and also hear more about their experiences as a deaf individual in our society and ways that hearing individuals can communicate with them more effectively and make them feel included in the workplace and outside of the workplace.

And we also provide communication access, consulting services for different organizations as well. So that's really an overview of our services and of the current shortage and how we over how we work to overcome that shortage. Can see that there are a few questions in the Q&A, so I'll go ahead and answer some of those with the few minutes that we have left.

Let's see what you need as far as equipment for these video remote interpreting services. Are they hard to set up? So really, all you need for video remote interpreting services is either a laptop or a personal device like a iPad or tablets. So what we will need on our end is an audio stream of the appointment or meeting, and that audio stream is usually provided through whatever platform is being used that can be Zoom teams, etc. So you would be logged in to the laptop or tablet and you would have the zoom call that we would provide unless you have one that you prefer to use on your end, which we can certainly use as well. You would have that platform pulled up, so we would have a audio feed for the interpreter and the interpreter would be interpreting in the Zoom room. So on that tablet you would also have the interpreter pulled up for the deaf individual and they would just be able to see the interpreting on their laptop or on their tablet.

So really setting up interpreting services through video, remote interpreting is as easy as setting up a Zoom room. You just need to get logged in and get in there and make sure that there is a clear audio feed for the interpreter. And we also recommend having a strong Wi-Fi connection as well to ensure that there's no trouble with the audio or the visual for the deaf client.

Okay, Let's go to the next question. What is the best way to get in touch with you about an upcoming interpreting need? Our organization has it's a large event so if you go to our website WW W Deaf Services Unlimited com you will find on the front page a button to request services and that will take you to our request form.

That form will ask you everything that we need to know about your upcoming event and that form will go to our scheduling team and they will be able to work with you to get everything scheduled you need for your event. We're able to help with small appointments. We have done very large conferences as well. So regardless of the size of your event, just submitting that request form will be all you need to do to get started.

If request forms aren't your thing, you can certainly give us a call. Our phone number is also at the top of our website right next to that request services button. And we have people that are standing by ready to help get the ball rolling with you. Is it next? I'll go to the next question. Is it ever too early to submit a request?

We are doing some planning for the end of 2024, So no, it is not ever too early to submit a request. The more notice you can give us, the better that will really help us ensure that we can find the right people for your event and get any details needed combed out ahead of time, especially if you are planning something like a conference or concerts or just any large live event.

There's a lot of moving pieces to that. So as soon as you can let us know, we will accept requests for services ahead of time. Regardless of when your services. go to the next question. Most of my deaf clients prefer onsite interpreting over VR services. Do you think deaf individuals are aware of the shortage too? I do believe that deaf individuals are oftentimes aware of this shortage.

I have talked to many of our deaf clients about this. They're aware because they know how difficult it is to ensure that they find interpreters for their events, and they've probably run into barriers with this before, especially if they live in an area where there aren't a lot of ASL interpreters. They're probably very familiar just due to the challenges that they've probably experienced.

So some people aren't as comfortable using remote services because maybe they've had issues with technology in the past. Something that I would recommend would be setting up a test call with them. We're always happy to help with test calls and we can use those to ensure that the deaf individual has a good connection. They can see the connection, they can get out any technical issues ahead of time and just being able to show them how seamlessly the services work.

I think that is something that can be offered that really helps make people more comfortable and okay, I'll do one last question. I know we only have a couple of minutes left, so this question says we have a four day conference with multiple deaf attendees registered. Do you have enough interpreters for a large event like this? The answer is yes.

So obviously this was talked about in the previous session too, but when you have multiple deaf attendees, you will need multiple interpreters. So a four day conference, there's a lot of planning involved in that and I'm sure there will be a lot of needs for interpreting for breakout sessions. You know, there might be meals that are going on and each deaf individual may need an interpreter during those times when they're in different areas of the conference.

So if you have a large need like this, we can certainly help accommodate. The more advanced notice, like I've said that you can give the better. But we are very experienced in providing services for large conferences and large events, so we're more than happy to help with those and we do have the resources needed. So submit your request for services as soon as you can and that will help us to get the ball rolling.

Okay. So I think we are finishing just in time. That is all the questions that I can get to today. Thank you for joining our breakout session. I hope this helped you understand a little bit more about our industry, the shortage that we are experiencing and our strategies, deaf services and limited uses to overcome these challenges that we're experiencing.

And like we said, we have a 98% fill rate, so we are happy to help with any of your requests. Please just submit a request at our website. W WW dot Deaf services unlimited dot com or give us a call and we'll be happy to help you. So I think next we will be moving on to the exhibit hall.

So if you have more questions or you would like to talk more specifically about services you are needing for your company or organization, please come to our exhibit booth and we will be happy to answer any more questions you might have. All right. Thank you.