ASL Interpreting

Interpreter services allow students access to course lectures and audiovisual materials in American Sign Language (ASL). The Disability Resource Center will arrange for ASL interpreters at the student’s request.

We understand this may be your first time working with a student who uses ASL as their primary means of communication. For that reason, and because we know you likely have many questions, we have prepared the following information and resources for your review.

To prepare for your course:

  • Share your meeting schedule and links with the DRC at drcterp@pdx.edu. If you know your meeting times are different than what is listed in the course description, please let us know. If there are days that class is canceled or additional meeting times are added, communicate these in advance to your students and to the DRC  so there is time to also notify service providers.
  • The ASL interpreters will be in contact via email or in-person to introduce themselves to you and let you know if they have all the information they need or if they have any questions.
  • It is oftentimes helpful for the ASL interpreter(s) to be added as a guest to the Canvas course, so they can receive any class updates or announcements and so they have access to course materials.
  • The student will be responsible for arranging service providers for small group work outside of class or any needed office hours. 

Remote/Online Courses:

For remote/online courses, ASL interpreters are only required if you plan to use synchronous (live streamed) course content. In these instances, both the student and their interpreters will join the live streamed class meeting from separate devices, using the link you provide. 

In addition to what has already been noted above, the following will help you prepare for your course:

  • Check your settings in Zoom. There are settings within Zoom that can allow only users with PSU emails into your meeting. While this can be useful, please do not use this setting for this course. The ASL interpreters often do not have their own PSU emails to use, and may be locked out of your meeting. Instead, feel free to use a password that can also be shared to service providers. 
  • Please keep in mind that while using the live, machine-captioning tools in sites such as Zoom or Google Hangouts is a nice extra added accessibility feature for some, those tools do NOT meet the same accuracy standard as an ASL Interpreter and will not meet our accommodation compliance needs.