Students sign up for learning opportunity<br>

Nancy Knapp leads her class in a signed version of “Wonder-ful World.” Taking the class, which she teaches on Saturday evenings are (from left) Aucherae Washington, Shauntanay Campbell, Reyna Abreu and Sofia Doryland.

Knapp began teaching an introductory class earlier this month on the American Manual Alphabet, an English language version of sign language. The form differs from American Sign Language, which is based on French sentence structure, she said. The American Manual Alphabet uses words in common English order and leaves out smaller words.

In her class Knapp explained that smaller words are left out for the same reason that students should adopt postures that are comfortable for them – interpreting the spoken spoken word in sign language is hard work.

“Statistics show that a half-hour of signing is equivalent to four hours of working at a desk,” she said. “Before long you get interpreter meltdown.”

Knapp decided to teach the class to a small group after she was approached by a neighborhood teen, Sandy Pittenger, who said she wanted to learn to sign. Knapp assembled a class and put the word out in the community. She currently has about 10 students, four of them under the age of 10. She urges them to practice signing numbers on license plates and words on signs, family names.

Demmy Vigil Abreau said she was taking the class because she used to know some “and like any language you don’t use, you lose it,” she said. Her daughter Reyna Abreu and her friend Sofia Doryland are joining in as well.

The young students warmed quickly to the hand gestures that make up letters, numbers and concepts like family relationships. They were as interested in learning why certain gestures came into use – how “boy” was depicted by gesture like taking off a ball cap, and “girl” by a gesture like tying a bonnet string.

For Knapp, the richness of language and how it interfaces with deaf culture is part of the appeal. Part of her class is devoted to educating the students about that culture.

“People interact with those with disabilities with a lack of experience or knowledge, Knapp said. “They don’t set out to be rude or uncaring.”

Knapp’s lifelong career has been in working with the disabled, and her interest in sign language goes back 20 years, when she began learning it to communicate with deaf friends. This was while she was living in Virginia with her husband, Tony Knapp, who works for the National Park Service and is now at Albright Training Center.

In the course of her work with federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, she became proficient enough to become an oral interpreter for the government.

In order to work as an interpreter, she followed her training with a test in ethics. Interpreters also take a skills test; those that don’t have a duty to inform the people that they’re translating for that they aren’t skills-certified.

“I tell them that I’m ethics certified but not skill-certified,” Knapp said.

The ethics part is critical, she said.

“If you maintain confidentiality and respect for the culture, they will forgive you mistakes in signing,” Knapp said. “They will not forgive a breech of their trust.”

Interpreters also have to keep their own feelings and opinions out of the way.

“An interpreter is nothing more than a telephone line,” Knapp said. “They have no opinion, no comments of their own, and no influences on what’s being said. They just translate word for word."