Vocational Rehabilitation Glossary
Vocational Rehabilitation Glossary
These videos are ASL explanations of terms that are commonly used within the vocational rehabilitation process. They are not designed to give you the way to sign a specific term. They are not an attempt at developing consistent translations for the same term. Rather, they are designed to give you some options for ways of understanding and talking about the concepts in ASL.
For interpreters, it is important to approach these terms understanding that there can be many worldviews at play – depending on a person’s relationship to the VR system and the Deaf community. For some people, the terms “disability” or “impairment” may have strong negative connotations and they may seek to avoid using that term Within the VR system, however, these terms are important for determining eligibility and/or priority of individuals to access services. As an interpreter, it is important to be able to understand that in a language interaction, more than just one perspective may be at play and so one way of interpreting may not be sufficient in successfully facilitating communication.
A Note on Process
The terms were selected from over 250 terms that were in written English. A group of VR counselors and interpreters experienced in VR settings then ranked the terms to determine which ones should have priority in being included in this project. Both the counselors and interpreters included both Deaf and hearing raters from a variety of locations around the country. Once on site, the filming team had two VR counselors who assisted in making sure that the essential of the definition for the term in the ASL versions was included. So, the ASL versions are not purely translations of the original English definitions, but they also include the feedback from raters, the insights of the on-site VR counselors, and the talents of the on-screen signers.
Vocational Rehabilitation Terminology Search Engine
Choose a Video to Begin Playback
Select a video from the scrollable list to the left or begin typing in the search input box to narrow your query. Use the reset button to start over.