Singing heavy metal in sign language

This ASL interpreter is bringing metal music to the head bangers of the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Transcript

00:00I will never know what it is to be deaf because I am a hearing interpreter, but what I love

00:17about my job is being able to provide complete access.

00:25It's being able to look at the words and see what the lyrics actually are, but then it's

00:29taking that and working with it and translating it into sign language.

00:37We start trying to find as many lyrics, as many possible set lists, popular songs, entire

00:47discographies, everything that we can find about a band, and we try to get prepared for

00:52it.

00:53Because ASL is its own language with its own grammar structure and its own vocabulary,

00:59things in English don't directly translate into ASL.

01:03You want to try to be able to give access to those feelings, that you can feel that

01:08intensity of the music as it rises and as it falls, as it gets quieter.

01:28There's not one specific hard-of-hearing person, so we have clients that range from

01:46those that do choose, that want to sing along.

01:51There are some that can hear some of what's being said.

01:55There are others that can't hear any of the lyrics, but can feel the vibrations so strongly

02:02that they can follow along perfectly.

02:05Whatever their experience is, we're able to provide everything else.

02:11We're able to provide that little piece that they might be missing.

02:21Most of my time is actually spent in the classroom, and a lot of it is for students

02:27or for faculty, staff, and sometimes we have for visitors for special events, such as concerts.

02:36So that kind of just happens to be a little side bonus of what I get to do.

02:40I have always been interested in sign language.

02:43I was a kid that just picked up on a lot of the visual aspect of ASL.

02:50I didn't have anybody in my family or a relation or friends or anything like that that were deaf.

02:55I just happened to get my hands on an ABC book, and I fell in love with it.

03:01It's such a big part of who I am that I couldn't imagine doing anything else.

03:05There isn't a plan B. If this never worked out, I don't have a plan B.