“That’s where we’re going to stand out. We know we need more than one,” Gonzalez said. “Those four staff are going to build relationships with students.”
Bringing interpreters under the university umbrella allows them to build a greater rapport with students and feel more comfortable on a campus.
“It shows our commitment to accessibility and inclusivity,” said Amanda Jackson, assistant director of assistive technology at Florida. “High school juniors or seniors can see that the University of Florida is committed to having interpreters, so they might apply.”
Not all deaf and hard-of-hearing students use American Sign Language interpreters, at Florida or other colleges. A student’s preferred communication method whether live captioning, closed captioning, interpreting or lipreading and voicing depends both on the student and the kind of class. But interpretation for some classes can require complex vocabulary. At Florida, interpreters with technical experti