How sign-language interpreters handle Lady Gaga

washingtonpost.com

10 points·marksu··4 comments

I found it weird that they're also contemplating sign-language translation of the artists' gestures. Why is that needed? Are generic gestures made by hearing people in a different "language" from what deaf people would use?

Or is it the other way around, that since deaf people have a full language available using (intricate) gestures, they don't "need" (and therefore never learn) the more generic gestures used by hearing?

Interpretation usually isn't as fast as speech. If you watch an interpreter you'll notice that when the speaker pauses the interpreter is often still going. Often it can lag by a few seconds or more, depending on what's being said.

If they didn't interpret the gestures, they'd fall out of the stream and be harder to understand. For example, if a professor says "You can see here [points at figure A on the board] that ABC and here [points at figure B] that XYZ..." you need to have those "points" in the right places to understand them.

Certainly not all gestures a musician makes are significant, but some probably are.

D'oh, I didn't think of the utterly obvious fact that to interpret the sign language, you're of course looking at the translator, and thus not seeing the gestures as they're made by the artist. Thanks!

One-page article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03...

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