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Volume 1 ~ November 2009 Preview

ISSN # 2150-5772 - This article is the intellectual property of the authors and CIT. If you wish to use this article in your teaching or in another format, please credit the authors and the CIT International Journal of Interpreter Education.

Accessibility to Theater for Deaf and Deaf-Blind People: Legal, Language and Artistic Considerations

Brian R. Kilpatrick1
Lone Star College System, North Harris, United States

Jean Andrews
Lamar University, United States

Abstract
Without accessibility, theater can be meaningless to the deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind consumers. As part of a larger study conducted by B. Kilpatrick (2007), the authors interviewed 38 participants who have been professionally involved in deaf children’s theater as to their opinions related to theater accessibility options. Their responses bring forward for discussion options ranging from English text-based accessibility, the closest to the English language, to shadow interpreting, which provides accessibility closest to the play being delivered in full in American Sign Language. Using historical research methods, semi-structured and structured interviews, open-ended questions, archival materials, and published documents on theater interpreting, the authors provide a descriptive commentary about accessibility options based on legal, language and artistic considerations. Following these descriptions, the authors recommend that interpreter training programs include theater interpretation techniques.

Keywords: theatrical interpreting; script translation; interpreter training; interpreter certification; deaf studies; accessibility; theater; sign language; deaf theater; deaf-blind.