Level Up Resources

Interpreting for individuals who have experienced Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (DV/SA) requires specialty knowledge and skills. Interpreting skills include knowledge of trauma-informed care and how trauma impacts language use, as well as additional self-care for interpreters. The information in this webshop, developed in collaboration with Deaf-centered DV/SA service providers, will help you determine if this work is right for you now or in the future.

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Cultural competencies are essential when interpreting between people from different cultures within human sexuality settings. It is important to recognize how cultural differences impact the interpreting needs. This webshop provides an overview of human sexuality and body autonomy. It also discusses ways that people engage and connect in various types of relationships and the importance of understanding differing intimate experiences.

Go to Human Sexuality 1*

This webshop is designed to introduce fundamental background information about the general process of hearing, hearing-related appointments, and assistive technology you may come in contact with during these interactions. This webshop was created with the expertise and perspective of a Deaf Audiologist, and also offers information that might be necessary when working with Deaf professionals that support people with hearing differences.

Go to Audiology: A Deaf Perspective

Employment and health are inextricably linked. Employment and income have a direct impact on life expectancy, quality of life, and healthcare costs. Relatedly, medical health has a direct impact on employability. Employment can improve an individual’s physical and mental well-being, while job loss can have a detrimental effect. At the same time, poor health can impact the ability of an individual to get and maintain a job. Working-age people with disabilities are less likely to be employed than those without disabilities. They are also more likely to have anxiety, depression, and chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. A lack of employment exacerbates these conditions, creating a cycle where unemployment leads to ill health, and ill health leads to unemployment.

Go to Employment’s Impact on Healthcare Outcomes

Healthcare systems can be hard to access and navigate for patients, family members, and advocates. This 20 hour module provides sign language interpreters the foundational understanding of healthcare systems. It will cover the additional barriers Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing individuals experience and how those barriers impact health outcomes. Through a systems approach interpreters can facilitate the connection between Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing individuals and healthcare systems.

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Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) has become a standard method of service delivery in healthcare settings. This webshop offers you the chance to learn what is needed to be an interpreter in VRI healthcare settings. It will discuss necessary equipment and software platforms, as well as teaming techniques to improve a Deaf patient’s experience in healthcare settings.

Go to VRI in Healthcare Settings

Despite enormous similarities in our work, sign language and spoken language interpreters often have minimal professional interactions with each other. While co-teaming is more common in some settings—medical environments, for example—opportunities for spoken language interpreters and sign language interpreters to team together can be rare. When they arise, both interpreters may be unfamiliar with the co-interpreting process, including expectations of the other person. This webshop provides an overview of the co-interpreting process, details professional norms, and shares considerations regarding power and privilege that ASL interpreters should be aware of—particularly those of us who are white and/or have privilege related to citizenship status or being L1 English users.

Go to Spoken Language and Sign Language Interpreting

In a world marked by diversity and individuality, understanding the wide spectrum of sexual identities, attractions, and relationships has become more crucial than ever. Our workshop, designed to be an enlightening exploration of these vital topics, invites you to embark on a journey of self-discovery and empathy. By the end of this workshop, participants will have developed a deeper appreciation for the diversity of sexual identities, attractions, and relationships, as well as the skills and knowledge necessary to foster inclusivity and empathy in their interactions with others.

Go to Human Sexuality 2*

The ability to describe varying kinds of medications and human anatomy are foundational skills for ASL/English interpreters to work effectively in healthcare settings. This 20 hour module is an introduction to pharmacology and how medications impact the body. It also addresses terminology origins, medical roots, suffixes, and prefixes, and applies those terms to the body systems they affect. Medication dosing will provide interpreters with a working knowledge of medications used in medical settings and how to accurately relay medication information, e.g., medication dosing, dosing intervals, duration, tapering and side effects.

Go to Foundations to Pharmacology and Medical Terminology

This module provides an introduction to health inequities within the deaf, deafblind, deaf-disabled and hard of hearing communities (Deaf communities) through an intersectional framework. It examines various contributors to health inequities, including racial disparities in health and health care and the impact of COVID-19. It explains ways to promote health equity through community-driven actions, including the role of sign language interpreters.

Go to Health Inequities within the D/DB/HH Communities

This webshop explores the complicated and nuanced work of serving as a designated/preferred interpreter for Deaf Professionals within healthcare settings. This work will be examined through two frameworks: bioethics and the empowerment of practice professionals. This webshop is recommended for interpreters who are considering work in healthcare settings with Deaf Professionals.

Go to Centering Deaf Professionals in Healthcare Settings

This is the first training of its kind developed in partnership with Deaf dentists in ASL. This module introduces you to fundamentals of oral healthcare: anatomy, conditions, treatment and procedures, medications, and preventative care. This module provides a foundation of knowledge that will support you to accurately interpret in oral healthcare settings.

Go to Oral Health

The goal of this learning module is to focus on different aspects of public health, including considerations for interpreters working as a team to meet the needs of varied and diverse patients. While the module only covers 16 topic areas, participants will develop a better understanding of public health and the barriers the deaf community face, and translate that knowledge into their work.

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Cultural competencies are essential when interpreting between people of varying cultures within healthcare settings. It is important to recognize how cultural differences impact the interpreting needs. This webshop provides an overview of structures of oppression and privilege using the theory of kyriarchy, which is defined as a social system built around oppression, domination, and submission. It also discusses intersectionality within the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard-of-Hearing communities.

Go to Intersectionality in Healthcare Settings

Rooted in adult learning theory, this training focuses on techniques that Community Assessors (CAs), Deaf community members, can use to provide valuable feedback to American Sign Language (ASL)/English interpreters based on their lived experiences and native language use. It helps CAs develop the skills necessary to facilitate impactful feedback, while promoting the ongoing professional development of interpreters in healthcare environments.

Go to How to Give Feedback: Community Assessor

Rooted in adult learning theory, this training focuses on techniques that Interpreting Mentors (IMs), Deaf or Hearing interpreters, can use to provide valuable feedback to ASL/English interpreter peers. IMs will learn how to discuss the interpreting cognitive process and explore strategies to support ASL/English interpreters’ self-assessment and decision-making skills. This course helps IMs develop the necessary skills to facilitate impactful feedback while promoting the ongoing professional development of interpreters in healthcare environments.

Go to How to Give Feedback: Interpreting Mentor

This training aims to provide the foundational tools necessary to provide supervision to sign language interpreters working in healthcare settings. It will apply basic adult learning theories as well as the Demand Control Schema to the case consultation framework. Through this framework potential supervisors will learn the process of how to facilitate case consultation with interpreting colleagues in analyzing their work.

Go to Supervision Training