The Association Of Turkish Sign Language Interpreters

Hearing impaired people are equally benefited from services of health and justice together with expressing themselves, establishing social relations, education and employment through Sign Language Interpreters. The presence of sign language interpreters with professional qualifications and equipment facilitates the full and effective participation of hearing impaired people in social life. In Turkey, the families of hearing impaired unlike other disability groups, they need someone who knows sign language is a prerequisite that they exist in business and social life. As a result of this need, the sign language interpreter that we started to support the families of CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) is gradually becoming a profession group, but the fact that there is no pre-license or license program on Sign Language Interpreting in our country is a big deficiency . Nevertheless, the professionalism of the CODAs in the field develops entirely in the direction of their experience and this is a time consuming process. The need for organizing this field has become a necessity for our sign language translators who work in our country and / or who want to work, to receive professional training in the field and to fulfill their profession correctly. As a result, our association is working with a group of CODA members to pursue a common national policy on this profession and to work together with their professional staff, to eliminate the inequalities they are exposed to during their work and social life, to protect the rights and interests of professionals, was established in November 2010 in Istanbul. As an association, it is aimed to advocate and lobby for the development and use of sign language in the way of profession professionalization, to influence and / or change the public policies in terms of the use of sign language, to start to be given to international standards of vocational education, to contribute to solution of problems in vocational and social life.