My World, My Work
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A Push For Diversity Among Deaf Interpreters - KUT 90.5 | By Sarah Gabrielli
Texas sign language interpreters are the latest group to join the Black Lives Matter movement in exposing racial disparities. In a statement released this week, the Texas Society of Interpreters for the Deaf, or TSID, acknowledged the field’s lack of diversity.
SAC's American Sign Language program helps meet growing demand for interpreters
SAC graduate Frank Peralez III has built a successful career as an independent contractor and an interpreter for a video relay company. Enrolling at SAC's ASL and interpreter training program at SAC "was the best decision of my life."
Image Description: A Latino male with a beard and glasses dressed in a blue sports coat and shirt smiling.
Transcript:
Hello! My name is Jose Francisco Peralez III. To provide a visual description: I am a brown Latino man, who has a black long-sleeve shirt, glasses, dark hair with a mustache and beard with some grey sprinkled in.
To tell you a little bit on who I am: I am from the Rio Grande Valley; which is in South Texas. I graduated high school and immediately went into the university and majored in Music Education courses while simultaneously taking American Sign Language 1 & 2 which rather enjoyed. I then made the move to San Antonio, TX and it was there that when I entered into the university that I really was not enjoying what I was doing. During the holidays, I went back home and I saw that there was a Deaf event happening and I decided to go. There, I saw my ASL teacher and I told them about my experiences at the university that I was at. They patiently listened and said that I was very fortunate because I was in San Antonio and San Antonio College had a fantastic interpreting program. I was reluctant and said I would rather major in music and continue my studies there. We went back and forth for a while until finally they were able to convince me to enroll at San Antonio College. When I went to San Antonio College, it was the best decision that I ever made in my life. I went through the course work, graduated, and by the time I had finished, I had completed and earned my Board for the Evaluation of Interpreters (BEI) - Basic Level certification.
That was back in 2012! It has been 15 years since then. Currently I have my BEI-Advanced certificate, as well as my national credential from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, the National Interpreter Certificate. I also hold the Sign Language Proficiency Interview - Superior Level. I have had a lot of experiences in interpreting, my favorites being conference, medical, working with Deaf Professionals, as well as cruise and tourism.
I also am a former instructor teaching in two interpreter training programs: one in Houston which is Lone Star College - Cy-Fair as well as my alma mater, San Antonio College. I taught a variety of courses from Interpreting II to Interpreting III, Intralingual Skill Development for Interpreters and a slue of other courses.
I've also presented a variety of workshops, such as: "Say Hello to BEI!", which provides an overview of what that certification system looks like. I also provide a workshop on collaborative team work with interpreters entitled, "Help You, Help Me, Help Us!", which trains interpreters how to team interpret effectively. Another workshop is Sight Translation for Sign Language Interpreters, as well as "Under Pressure!", which is a stress management workshop for sign language interpreters. I also teach "Community and Ethics: Building Our Village", and a few other topics as well.
I am also involved in a variety of organizations such as RID, the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf; TSID, the Texas Society of Interpreters for the Deaf; WASLI, which is the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters; NAIE, the National Association of Interpreters in Education; TAD, the Texas Association of the Deaf; NAD, the National Association of the Deaf; and lastly Mano a Mano, which is a trilingual interpreting organization.
Should you wish to contact me regarding mentoring services, professional development opportunities, or contracting me to interpret, please feel free to reach out through my contact information on my website.