Having committed to a week of silence to demonstrate solidarity with the UK’s Deaf sign language users, Professor Graham Turner has made it to Thursday without a squeak. Will everyone else’s luck run out before the weekend? Imagine you’re completely blind. Can you do that? It’s not too difficult: you start by closing your eyes… […]
Category: Interpreting
Vow of Silence: Day 2
Surgery performed on Deaf people without their consent. Signers unemployed or under-employed, their talents wasted. Shockingly frequent mental health problems as Deaf people struggle to live within a hostile social system. Deaf children in classrooms where they can’t understand the language of instruction. Police, prisons, banks, Inland Revenue – an endless list of institutions not […]
Prof’s Vow of Silence
It’s going to be a quiet week in my office. This week is the British Deaf Association’s ‘Sign Language Week’ (http://www.bda.org.uk/). My contribution? I’m going to shut up. So if, when you see me this week, you cheerily wish me good morning and hear not a sound in reply, it’s not (just) because I’m a […]
Bouncing Ball Research
Is research more like a vase or a bouncing ball? Vases are pretty. They are wonderfully ornamental and can even inspire poetry. What they do not do, however, is leave a mark. They look good and are to be admired but that’s it. Vase-style research is similar. It is admirable, excellent and might even inspire […]
How Open is Research?
Back in May last year, I wrote the following words in a column in the ITI Bulletin, “Researchers could discover a way to double efficiency, win new clients and increase translators’ status but, unless those at the sharp end of the profession take an interest, none of this would ever filter down to practice.” Since […]
Interpreting for deaf jurors
http://youtu.be/_7uYtXD_J34 (BSL version) Jury service in adversarial court systems is an important civic duty and responsibility. Jurors have to understand and weigh up evidence presented, assess the credibility of witnesses and decide on the likelihood of certain events having occurred in the light of their own personal experiences. There has been increasing interest in whether […]
New Competition: Sign the Anthem
Today’s blog posting announces a competition being run by the Centre for Translation & Interpreting Studies in Scotland (CTISS), this Department’s longest-established research centre. It’s a translation challenge, and it’s open to all. Let me explain. In case you didn’t know, 2014 is a big year for Scotland. Of course, there’s the small matter of […]
Sign language brokering experiences in the Deaf community
Many people will have seen the video of the cute young girl Claire Koch singing Christmas carols and simultaneously signing the songs in American Sign Language for her deaf parents that went viral in December 2013. The general response was the feel good factor – how amazing, considerate and talented this little girl is. Children like […]
BSL Highlights
As the year draws to a close, here are 10 highlights from the work of the British Sign Language team at Heriot-Watt University. We have grown significantly during 2013. New additions to the family include Professor Jemina Napier, plus Clare Canton, Yvonne Waddell and Stacey Webb. This means we now have six PhD students working […]
Claudia Angelelli Joins LINCS
I first met Claudia V. Angelelli a couple of days before the launch of the EIRSS last June. She was very enthusiastic about the research summer school and super-efficient. In the space of 30 minutes, she managed to have a chat and catch up with EIRSS coordinator Raquel de Pedro, help us set up the […]