AI, Interpreting, and Language Access: CIT Pre-Conference 2024 - Coalition for Sign Language Equity in Technology

AI, Interpreting, and Language Access

This seminar provides context to the Guidance on AI and Interpreting Services for using automated interpreting by artificial intelligence (AIxAI). The Guidance prioritizes end users and public safety in four principles that, if followed, will (eventually) generate Safe, Accountable, Fair and Ethical (“SAFE”) interpreting by AI.

One session in the seminar will review federal law on the use of artificial intelligence for interpreting. Another session will discuss positional misunderstanding, which are misunderstandings based on habits of how to perform structural roles associated with a job (Doerr, 2019). Finally, the Coalition for Sign Language Equity in Technology — formerly the Advisory Group on AI and Sign Language Interpreting — will introduce introductory level AIxAI curricular materials to orient educators and the profession to technological and social/interactional developments, including how to strengthen the value of human interpreters.

The published Guidance and AIxAI curriculum are influenced and informed as a result of webinars and a symposium hosted by the Advisory Group on AI and Sign Language Interpreting in 2023-2024, which is now called the Coalition on Sign Language Equity in Technology (Co-SET).

Schedule

8:00am Pre-HomeWork for CEUs due before the start of the Seminar. See email from info@deaf-futures.com for details.
8:30am (Pacific Time) In-Person Registration
8:50am Online Zoom opens
9:00am Welcome, Overview of the Day
9:10am Introduction: SAFE AI and Co-SET “Guidance on AI and Interpreting Services” (4 Principles)
9:30am Roundtable 1: What does the law say about AI interpreting?
11:00am Break
11:15am “Digestion Activity” (required for CEUs)
11:30am Preview of AIxAI learning materials for IEPs and grassroots communities
12:00pm LUNCH (with CEU activity)
12:45pm Report Outs (required for CEUs)
1:00pm Roundtable 2: Positional Misunderstanding and Fairness in Interpreted Interaction
2:30pm Break
2:45pm Round up activity/Q&A (required for CEUs)
4:00pm FULL STOP! (Evaluation required for CEUs)

.6 CEUs (PPO)

Emcee Timothy RIker is a Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI) and serves as a Community Specialist and Staff Interpreter at the Deaf Community Support Center and Keystone Interpreting Solutions (KIS) in Minnesota. He is a member of the Coalition on Sign Language Equity in Technology (Co-SET) and the Interpreting SAFE-AI Task Force. Timothy collaborates with the Deaf YES! Center for Empowerment and Recovery on the Vital Signs training for healthcare professionals, promoting effective communication with Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing individuals. With over 20 years of experience in ASL, advocacy, and technology, he champions equitable solutions for accessible communication.

Jeff Shaul – #DeafSafeAI Presentation – Jeff Shaul, from Cincinnati, Ohio, is interested in developing novel approaches to data farming for accessibility applications. Along with Ryan Hait-Campbell and Calvin Young, he cofounded GoSign.AI, a company dedicated to collecting data of the sign languages of the world. Currently, there is great disparity in the robustness of AI tools designed for the hearing and those for sign language users. GoSign.AI aims to help fix that.

Lisi Whitworth is a Deaf female entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in technology, media, and business administration. After shutting down her first business, a creative services agency, she successfully developed Eventida, a SaaS platform specializing in accessible and inclusive events. Recognizing a recurring issue of inequity for diverse talent throughout her event and website creation work, she transformed Eventida into a research and development lab studying inclusion. Lisi’s unique blend of professional experience in technical and business domains, coupled with her personal experience as a Deaf woman overcoming multiple health issues, fuels her innovative approach to addressing accessibility and inclusion challenges.

Co-SET introduces introductory level AIxAI curricular materials to orient educators and the profession to technological and social/interactional developments, including how to strengthen the value of human interpreters.

Roundtable 1: What does the law say about AI interpreting?

Two attorneys from the Department of Justice (DOJ) will present an overview of US federal law on the requirements for interpreting for both spoken language and signed language. Panelists will discuss how these laws may or may not apply to interpreting by artificial intelligence (AI).

Participants:

Ali Szemanski (she/her) is a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division in the Disability Rights Section (DRS). DRS works to achieve equal opportunity for people with disabilities in the United States by implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and coordinating with federal agencies on the consistent implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504). DRS also provides technical assistance. Ali’s work includes investigations and enforcement actions concerning the accessibility of state and local governments’ services, programs, and activities, and public accommodations under the ADA.

Laureen D. Laglagaron is a Senior Attorney at the Federal Coordination and Compliance Section of the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice. She leads investigations involving allegations of discrimination by law enforcement agencies, courts, prosecutorial offices and other government agencies funded by the federal government. Her work includes enforcing, coordinating, and overseeing compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Executive Order 13166, Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency; and similar federal statutes and policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in federally-conducted and federally-funded programs.

Zainab Alkebsi serves as the Chief Policy Officer at Deaf Equality, where she leads the organization’s policy efforts for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, and Late-Deafened communities.
Before joining Deaf Equality, Zainab served as Policy Counsel and Director of the Policy Institute at the National Association of the Deaf.
In her current role, she oversees Deaf Equality’s strategic policy efforts, focusing on systemic changes to ensure greater accessibility and equity for the communities it serves. She regularly interfaces with government agencies, Congress, coalitions, and businesses on behalf of Deaf Equality. Zainab also represents Deaf Equality at conferences, on advisory committees and panels, and through presentations. She also serves as President of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Bar Association and Chair of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network.
Zainab holds a B.A. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law. She is admitted to the bar in Maryland and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Victoria “Tori” Smith Ekstrand is a professor at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and recently completed a three-year term at the UNC Graduate School as the Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education, where she directed UNC’s premier doctoral fellowship program. She has been a media law and free expression scholar for more than two decades. Her research focuses on critical and interdisciplinary perspectives in media law and free expression, with research on anonymous speech, campus free expression debates, online accessibility issues for people with disabilities, and problems with regulating online political advertising. Before that, she worked as a senior executive for The Associated Press at its headquarters in New York City.

Mark Applin and Deafax conceptualised and launched Signly – synchronous, in-vision, sign language translations on any webpage for any deaf sign language user. It provides d/Deaf people with equal access to digital information, advice and services.

Dr. Holly Silvestri has significant experience in the field of translator and interpreter training in addition to running her own language service provider agency as well as freelancing for other agencies and government entities. Currently she works as Senior Coordinator for Translation, Training, and Curriculum at the National Center for Interpretation at the University of Arizona. Her working languages are Spanish, French and English. She is a founding member of American Association of Interpreters and Translators in Education (AAITE.org) as well as Chair of the Public Relations Committee for Stakeholders Advocating for Fair and Ethical AI in Interpreting Task Force (safeaitf.org). She is also a member of the American Translators Association and her state’s professional association Arizona Translators and Interpreters and regularly presents on various topics relevant to the professions for these organizations and others around the United States.

Eliana Lobo is a ToTTM of medical interpreters, a certified CoreCHI-PTM Portuguese interpreter, and a Washington State DSHS medical interpreter.
An experienced translation/localization supervisor, hospital interpreter services supervisor, National Director of interpreter quality for an LSP, Portuguese/TEFL certified language teacher, and adjunct professor of healthcare interpreting at Highline College in Washington State.
Formerly a CCHI Commissioner (2015-2021), and currently, Standards & Training Committee Chair, NCIHC Board member and President, voice host for the STC’s podcast, “Interpreting in Healthcare”, and creating/producing >65 national webinars to train trainers of medical interpreters with the “Home for Trainers” webinar workgroup, for over a decade.

Joann H. Lee, Special Counsel on Language Justice, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA)
Joann provides legal services to linguistically marginalized Asian American & Pacific Islander communities, focusing on representing survivors of gender-based violence and human trafficking in the areas of family and immigration law. She also conducts language rights advocacy with government entities, including filing administrative complaints and litigation based on civil rights mandates. Joann was appointed to the California Judicial Council Language Access Plan Implementation Task Force from 2015 to 2019, has coordinated local and national language justice advocacy coalitions, and has served on the boards of the Korean American Bar Association, Korean Resource Center, and the Center for the Pacific Asian Family.

Irina Paramonova is the Coordinator of the AIIC Science Hub and Convener of the AI
Workstream. A freelance Russian <> English conference and court interpreter since 2001, she works with the IMF, World Bank, NATO, U.S. Department of State, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and Voice of America. She holds an MA in Translation and
Interpretation from MIIS and an MBA from the University of Maine.

Moderator: Jeff Shaul
Jeff Shaul, from Cincinnati, Ohio, is interested in developing novel approaches to data farming for accessibility applications. Along with Ryan Hait-Campbell and Calvin Young, he cofounded GoSign.AI, a company dedicated to collecting data of the sign languages of the world. Currently, there is great disparity in the robustness of AI tools designed for the hearing and those for sign language users. GoSign.AI aims to help fix that.

Roundtable 2: Positional Misunderstanding and Fairness in Interpreted Interaction

Panelists with a variety of language combinations, training, and cultural experience discuss efforts by interpreters to generate shared understanding in the presence of language differences, that is, during plurilingual communication. They will investigate two questions: does “positional misunderstanding” offer something new for our field? And, is it a concept that can be leveraged to improve and expand interpreting services by humans and AI?

Participants:

Eileen Forestal
Professional Development Committee at Conference of Interpreter Trainers
One of the very few Deaf persons to ascend to leadership in ASL, Deaf Studies and Interpreter Education Programs, Eileen retired in June 2015 after 36 years as Coordinator/ Senior Professor of ASL-English Interpreting Programs in New Jersey. Certified as a Deaf interpreter since 1979, Eileen has taught at several universities and presented at national and international conferences, including the recent Symposium on AI and Sign Language Interpreting. She is currently on CIT’s Professional Development Committee and represents CIT on the Task Force for Stakeholders Advocating for Fair and Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Interpreting (SAFE-AI) and is a founding member of the Liaison Team of the Advisory Group on AI and Sign Language Interpreting.

Su Kyong Isakson, Associate Professor of Interpreting, is a nationally certified ASL/English interpreter with 15 years of professional experience. She has worked internationally as an International Sign and Korean Sign Language interpreter. In addition, Ms. Isakson has consulted and developed interpreter training for numerous state and federally funded grants. Her teaching and interpreting work is informed by her formative experience as a Korean-American born to deaf Korean parents. Ms. Isakson brings lifelong experience with the immigrant deaf community and is passionate about intercultural communication and how it informs her work as an interpreter.

Magdalena Lindner-Juhnke holds university degrees in conference interpreting for German, English and Spanish from the University of Heidelberg and the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She’s been working as a freelance private market conference interpreter for about 15 years and has taught conference interpreting at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences for several years. During the Covid-19 pandemic she founded a small language service agency, now organizing teams of conference interpreters for all kinds of events. She’s been an active member in both the German association for conference interpreters (VKD) and the international association of conference interpreters (AIIC). In 2024, Magda became a member of the AI Workstream of the newly founded AIIC Science Hub, where her focus is on drafting guidance for a responsible use of AI in conference interpreting.

Carola E Morton is a federally certified English/Spanish court interpreter. She was key staff for the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination (FCICE) and the Consortium for Language Access in the Courts (CLAC); the first vice-president for the California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA); and served with the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC). Carola is an active member of ASTM International’s committee F43 on Language Services and Products and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Joint Working Group 5: Natural Language Processing, and is presently the Acting Chair of the Next Steps Committee for the SAFE-AI Task Force.

Dr. Stellan Vinthagen is Professor of Sociology, and the Inaugural Endowed Chair in the Study of Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Resistance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he directs the Resistance Studies Initiative. He is Editor of the Journal of Resistance Studies, and Co-Leader of the Resistance Studies Group at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has since 1980 been an educator, organizer and activist, participating in numerous nonviolent civil disobedience actions, for which he has served a total of more than one year in prison. One of his books is A Theory of Nonviolent Action – How Civil Resistance Works (2015).

Amanda Wheeler-Kay (she/her), Certified Healthcare Interpreter, teacher, lifelong learner. I am a white woman from Oregon whose second language is Spanish. I have worked as a community/health care interpreter in Portland since 2007; my heart also lives in two other communities I once called home: Washington DC, & Buena Vista, Cuscatlán, El Salvador. I love to travel with friends/family and play noncompetitive soccer. I do my best to “make good trouble, necessary trouble” following the call to action of the late Civil Rights leader and Georgia Congressman John Lewis. I share a home with my stepson and two cats.

CEU Disclaimer

Vancro Integrated Interpreting Services (VIIS) is an approved RID CMP sponsor for Continuing Education Activities. This workshop is offered for .6 CEUs in the Power, Privilege and Oppression area with all levels of Content Knowledge. Participants will receive a certificate of attendance. The target audience for this activity is: a mixed general and specialist audience of deaf and hearing people, including interpreters, engineers, advocates, legislators, and anyone who wants to help design AIxAI for the social good.

Cancellation and Refund Policy: No refunds for cancellations, with or without notice. In the highly unlikely event that we need to cancel; funds will be applied to the rescheduled date.

As always, VIIS is committed to offering educational opportunities free from discrimination and bias. For accommodations contact info@deaf-futures.com

Planning Team

Lisi Whitworth, Grace Covey, and Molly Glass

Thank you to all participants and attendees!