LANCASTER, Pa. — As we embark on a new year, many people are setting goals and resolutions to achieve. One popular goal is to learn a new language.
The National Deaf Center is hoping that people will follow through on the goal and try American Sign Language (ASL). Due to there being a shortage of interpreters currently, more people who know ASL would help.
“Learning ASL offers people the ability to communicate with family members and coworkers, and it doesn’t just afford us the ability to communicate in the deaf community, but also our nonverbal community,” said Nancy Hoover, ASL teacher at Your Language Connection.
Hoover says without interpreters, life can be very difficult and confusing for a person who depends on sign language. If there isn’t an interpreter for appointments, meetings and events, the plan is most likely to change or get canceled due to service not being provided.
Similar to many things, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people interact and caused many shortages. The sign language-speaking community has seen a decline in people who are qualified and services that are provided to those who need an ASL interpreter, which experts are describing as an alarming trend.
“It makes it very difficult to deal with everyday life, even going to the grocery store and interacting with the person at the deli counter that you want to buy meat from,” said Hoover. “It also creates a problem in terms of the workplace, school, medical and legal fields to get the help they need and interact."
According to the National Deaf Center, ASL interpreters are desperately needed at colleges and universities. Data states the number of long COVID-19 cases, the availability of remote work and general dissatisfaction with working conditions and compensation are contributing to a nationwide staffing shortage.
“The sign language-using communities are one of the only communities that can’t necessarily come up with interpreters for verbal language into sign language within their communities because most of them can’t hear the verbal language well enough to do the interpreting, which means they’re dependent on the outside community to learn their language well enough to be interpreters,” said Hoover.
For classes, or to learn more about how to help those who depend on ASL, click here.