Opportunities in Kenyan Sign Language Interpretation in the ICT era

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Opportunities in Kenyan Sign Language
Interpretation in the ICT era
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Sign Language/Interpreting

• Sign language is a language which uses manual
  communication, body language and lip patterns
  instead of sound to convey meaningsimultaneously
  combining hand shapes, orientation and movement
  of the hands, arms or body, and facial
  expressions to express fluidly a speaker's
  thoughts.
• Sign language interpreting makes communication
  possible between people who are deaf or hard of
  hearing and people who can hear. Interpreting is
  a complex process that requires a high degree of
  linguistic, cognitive and technical skills in
  both English/Swahili and Kenyan Sign Language
  (KSL).

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The Need for Qualified KSL Interpreters is growing

• The Persons with Disabilities Act 2003 (PWD)
  requires public institutions to provide
  qualified interpreters and other similar
  accommodations for individuals with disabilities
  
• The major need is in public schools and higher
  education, but health care providers, hospitals,
  courts, public safety and other government
  offices are also seeing increased demand.

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What is the problem?

• The root cause of the KSL interpreter shortage is
  the lack of interpreter training programs. Such
  training programs require adequate funding that
  is either not available or recognized as an
  important need within the community.

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Solution? Answer in ICTs

• The tremendous demand for qualified KSL
  interpreters has created new career opportunities
  for individuals interested in entering the field.
  Communications services such as Video relay
  services, TV interpreting, Captioning,
  Interactive training manuals, On line training
  programs, provide professional full-time jobs
  including benefits and management advancement
  opportunities.

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Opportunities in ICT Sector

• he following are opportunities identified as
  accelerator ICTs in the field of Sign Language
  and Interpreter training and service delivery-
• Interactive manuals, dictionaries and learning
  materials
• Video examination and marking/assessments
• Use of captioning on TV and films
• Voice/Video over Internet (VOIP)
• Video flash videos on Websites
• Instant Chat on mobile phones
• Short Message Services
• Conference video calls
• Use of video relays,
• Video mails
• PodCasts
• etc

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Opportunities in ICT Sector

• .the list above are but a few of the new
  frontiers where we need to take advantage of
  these new technologies to provide a ten-fold
  increase in the speed of communication over
  traditional methods of sharing information, for
  communications and offering training for a
  minority socio-linguistic group the Deaf

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Engaging the stakeholders

• Advocacy groups for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
  KNAD
• Relevant government ministries
• Public higher education
• Workforce services other job training resources
• Private sector (KSLIA other companies that
  employ interpreters)
• Legislators who will champion the issue

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In conclusion

• While the shortage of interpreters is a reality
  new technologies in the ICTs sector are
  realities too.

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For more information

• Chairman, KSLIA
• P. O. Box 1755 GPO 00100 Nairobi, Kenya.
• Tel [phone] or 0728 636 646 Email
  Kslia_chairman_at_yahoo.com
• Website www.kslia.blogspot.com