American Sign Language English Interpretation BA

You must display proficiency in ASL I-IV. You can accomplish this via:

• 2 years of ASL as a foreign language in high school
• 2 years ASL (4 classes; ASL 1-4) on a college transcript
• Life experience

A Deaf culture course may also be helpful, depending on how you gained ASL competency.

As part of the application process, you will be required to demonstrate your ASL competency. See the Application Process Details section below for details.

Please note: If you need ASL coursework to complete your path to proficiency, UNC offers ASL I-IV both online and on-campus. View the upcoming online ASL courses or visit the Department of ASLIS ASL courses page for all course information.

The essential physical abilities of a non-intermediary, or nondeaf, interpreter are:

• Hearing: the ability to hear, identify and understand the speech of another person without relying on visual assistance.
• Speech: the ability to speak clearly so that the speech is understandable to a listener.
• Vision: the ability to see details of another person’s hand shapes, hand movements and facial expressions from a distance of three to six feet.
• Facial expression: the ability to control the muscles of the face in order to manipulate the eyebrows, cheeks, mouth and nose.
• Manual dexterity: the ability to quickly make coordinated movements of one hand, a hand together with its arm, two hands or two hands together with arms.
• Finger dexterity: the ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands.
• Wrist-finger speed: the ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands and wrists.
• Limb movement: the ability to move the arms to place the hands slightly above the head, and to extend the arms away from the front of the body and to the sides of the body.
• Limb movement speed: the ability to quickly move the arms.
• Dual-limb coordination: the ability to coordinate movements of both arms while sitting or standing.
• Head: the ability to control the head in order to nod and to turn it from side to side.
• Physical stamina: the ability to endure moderate physical exertion without getting winded or out-of-breath for at least 30 minutes.

The essential cognitive abilities of a non-intermediary, nondeaf interpreter are:

• Critical thinking: the ability to use logic and analysis to assess communication in order to make adjustments in approaches to interpretation.
• Self-monitoring: the ability to monitor and assess the interpretation during and after a task.
• Selective attention: the ability to concentrate and be undistracted while performing a task, and to sustain that attention over a period of time.
• Auditory attention: the ability to focus on a single source of auditory information in the presence of other distracting sounds.
• Visual attention: the ability to focus on a single source of visual information in the presence of other distracting movements in the surrounding area.
• Mental stamina: the ability to sustain a significant amount of mental processing without fatigue or breakdown for at least 30 minutes.
• Working memory: the ability to remember information such as concepts, words and numbers for a brief time while interpreting.
• Information ordering: the ability to track and arrange information in a certain order.
• Pattern inference: the ability to quickly make sense of information even when parts of that information may appear to be missing.
• Time sharing: the ability to efficiently shift between two or more activities or tasks, and between two or more sources of information.
• Problem sensitivity: the ability to recognize when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong.
• Fluency of ideas: the ability to generate a number of ideas about a given topic. (This concerns the number of ideas produced and not the quality, correctness, or creativity of the ideas.)
• Breadth of knowledge: an acquaintance or understanding, at the introductory level or higher, of a broad variety of topics and fields of interest.

The essential cultural knowledge and linguistic abilities of a non-intermediary, nondeaf interpreter are:

English Language

• Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar.
• The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words, sentences and paragraphs.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas by speaking so that others will understand.

Written English Comprehension

• Read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Communicate information and ideas in writing so that others will understand.

American Sign Language

• Knowledge of the structure and content of American Sign Language including the meaning of lexical and phrasal items, rules of grammar and articulation.
• The ability to watch and understand information and ideas presented through signs, gestures, classifiers and finger spelling.
• The ability to communicate information and ideas through signs, gestures, classifiers and fingerspelling, so that others will understand.

Culture

• ASL-English interpreters must have an in-depth understanding of the cultural norms and mores of the American English-speaking and the American D/deaf communities.

The essential professional attributes of a non-intermediary, nondeaf interpreter are:

• Social perceptiveness: the ability to be aware of and sensitive to others’ reactions, and the ability to understand why others react as they do.
• Independence: the ability to develop independent approaches to doing things and to work with little or no supervision.
• Interpersonal relationships: the ability to develop constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and to maintain them over time.
• Adaptability and flexibility: the ability to adapt to considerable variety in the workplace and be flexible and accepting of positive and negative change.
• Emotional well-being: the ability to exercise emotional control and stability in order to fully use intellectual abilities and good judgment.
• Self-control: the ability to maintain composure, keep emotions in check, control anger and avoid aggressive behavior, even in difficult situations.
• Professional decorum: the ability to show respect and act in a professional manner during all interactions.
• Problem solving: the ability to make complex decisions, including the ability to identify problems, collect information, establish facts and draw valid conclusions.
• Organizing, planning, and prioritizing work: the ability to develop specific goals and plans, and to prioritize, organize and accomplish goals.
• Conflict resolution: the ability to identify and resolve conflicts related to the meanings of words, concepts, practices or behaviors.
• Time management: the ability to manage time well and to respect the time of others.
• Ethical standards: the ability to follow the Code of Professional Conduct as set forth by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf.