By
Theresa
B.
Smith,
Ph.D.,
MCSC,
SC:L
In the early days of professional interpreting, most people came from Deaf families or ‘the
church’. My own history is anomalous and so, I was asked to talk about my path. I was born and raised
an only child in San Jose, California in the post-war (WWII) years. Family heritage was Irish-American
with strains of German. My ancestors left Wexford, Ireland in 1820, to settle in Quebec, eventually
heading west across the plains and Sierra Nevada, to settle in what was then Mexico, roughly a decade
before the gold rush, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and California statehood. The family story
was seminal to my own identity as Irish (a fighter against repression), courageous and adventurous
(leaving the known and comfortable), the importance of education (refused to Irish Catholics by the
British at that time) and the importance of allies (Native Americans were essential to our success).
During elementary and high school, I attended residential schools, coming home on weekends
and spending summer vacations on my grandparents’ farm while my mother (a single parent) worked.
Neighboring farmers included cousins, and farm families from Japan, and Italy; workers had mostly
come from Mexico or the Philippines. I was free to learn from them all as I played with their children and
was welcomed into their homes.
As a result, when I first met Deaf people (at the age of 10) I recognized yet another language and
way of being in the World. It was not until I entered Seattle University however, in the Fall of 1960 that I
discovered and joined the local Deaf Community. I was captivated, using my eyes, face, body, and hands
to communicate. As in the homes of neighbors of different backgrounds, I was given a warm welcome.
My majors were English Literature and Education, but it was the Deaf Community that prepared me for
my life’s work. I went to the Deaf club where people played poker, drank beer and talked (just like at
home). I joined Community picnics, and was invited into the homes of Deaf families, and to the
Washington State School for the Deaf graduation in Vancouver, Washington. I went to captioned movie
nights, hung out in restaurants to hear Deaf linotype operators talk of work. I also observed ‘oral
classrooms’ where I noted the sterile environment in which children drilled on form and struggled to
understand, a stark contrast to my own rich education.
The years passed, I graduated from SU, married, taught elementary school, then briefly stayed
home with the birth of each of my three daughters. The 60s were a time of change and turmoil: Stokoe’s
work, the Babbidge Report, the Viet Nam War, the Civil Rights and the Women’s Movements. The
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation began serving deaf people and Seattle Community College (SCC),
along with 5 other colleges, received federal money to establish a regional program. In 1966, while
raising children, I began working part-time as an interpreter in classes such as computer programming,
radio repair, and philosophy, making friends with students and staff.
As the need for more interpreters became obvious, training programs were established, the
Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf was founded and soon certification established. I was asked to
develop a curriculum for SCC and in 1974 became Coordinator-Instructor of the new Interpreter Training
Program (ITP). The deaf and ITP students were natural allies, and we soon formed a ‘traveling Variety
Show’ called ‘Ameslan Arts,’ presenting poems, ‘jokes’ and signed songs for schools with mainstream
classes. In 1979 Rob Roth joined SCC; he planned and we hosted a national Deaf Arts Festival.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind (LH) began hiring deafblind people and a
DeafBlind social group formed, again including our ITP students. Information I gathered from DeafBlind
people to formalize for students eventually became the manual “Guidelines: Practical Tips for Working
and Socializing with DeafBlind People” (2002, 2nd Ed., Sign Media, Inc.). The Washington State
DeafBlind Citizens was formed, and we (the ITP and LH) became allies forming a Community.
(Continued to page 10)
The Power of ASL
9
Fall 2016 – Issue 3