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Dovetail Communication Group specializes in providing high quality American Sign Language interpreting services at conferences throughout the U.S. Our highly qualified interpreters have many years of conference experience, and we regularly work with conference organizers to help make their events accessible to all participants.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifies that businesses and nonprofit organizations that serve the public are required to ensure effective communication with individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. For conferences, the most effective way to accomplish this is by using qualified, experienced ASL interpreters.
Providing effective interpreting services at conferences is more complicated than you might expect. Starting with the keynote address(es), you will need an experienced, confident ASL interpreter who is comfortable interpreting in front of large audiences. Next, we come to the panels or breakout sessions, where you might need multiple ASL interpreters depending on how many Deaf or hard of hearing participants you have (and which sessions they choose to attend). Finally, we come to the lunches and any additional receptions that are scheduled. Rather than a time to relax, these social events can be the most challenging part of the entire conference for the interpreters. They will need to work as a team to interpret fast-paced social conversations between numerous different people (often in a noisy environment). Developing this skill can take years of practice, and most novice ASL interpreters cannot do this successfully.
Our ASL interpreters are carefully vetted for their certification level, skill level, and experience. At Dovetail, 66% of our interpreters have earned either a BEI Advanced, BEI Master, or RID National Certification. These certifications represent some of the highest levels of professional mastery as an ASL interpreter. And we take great pride in having cultivated a team of interpreters with this industry-leading level of certification.
Many of our interpreters have extensive experience interpreting at conferences on a wide range of subjects. They have handled conferences on neurosurgery, linguistics, social work, business marketing, computer science, and entrepreneurship, just to name a few. This gives us a large pool of talent to choose from when we receive requests from conference organizers, and it allows us to send the most qualified interpreters for each job. This, in turn, can make a huge difference for the experience of any ASL signers in attendance.
If you are a conference organizer who needs to provide ASL interpreters for Deaf or hard of hearing attendees, don’t wait to make your arrangements.
Conferences usually last multiple days, and they require not only full days of interpreting work, but also travel days. To reserve interpreters who are qualified, who have experience with the subject matter, who are comfortable working as a team, and who are available for your conference dates, we strongly recommend that you make your arrangements at least three months in advance of the conference.
1411 Town Creek Drive, Unit 9
Austin, Texas 78741
(512) 400-4238