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All over the world
there is a great need for Sign Language Interpreters for City, County
and State Offices, Schools,
Doctors Office, Lawyers Office, Court Room, Coaches, Instructors,
Teachers, Home Schoolers or just everyday communications.
The
National Center for Health Statistics estimates that 28 million
Americans (about 10% of the population) have some degree of hearing
loss. About 2 million of these 28 million people are classified as deaf
(they can't hear everyday sounds or speech even with a hearing aid).
Only about 10% of these 2 million people were born deaf. The other 90%
became deaf later in life.
The natural
language of around 500,000 deaf people in the US and Canada is American
Sign Language (ASL). A "natural" language is a language that is
learned as a first language in childhood. However, not all deaf people
learn ASL as their first language. Many use it as their second language
and some only use a little ASL, if at all.
Nonetheless,
many hearing people are fluent in ASL. Sign language has become more
and more popular in recent years and many hearing people are
registering for high school and college ASL classes. A recent estimate
claims that around 13 million people have some level of proficiency in
sign language.
That makes
American Sign Language the third most commonly used language in the US!
The shortage of
qualified interpreters affects deaf people of all ages, in school and
at work. College students struggle to find qualified interpreters for
their courses; mainstreamed deaf children often have poor quality
interpreters or no interpreter (The New York Times ran an article about
how some deaf NYC teens were attending public schools without an
interpreter), and deaf people working in the hearing world sometimes
have to go without an interpreter when one is needed for key meetings
or conferences.
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Today - Learn Sign Language - Start A New Career!
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