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Language Preferences Of Deaf Employees At The Department Of Defense, Trisha H. Montgomery

Master of Arts in Interpreting Studies and Communication Equity Thesis or Action Research Project

In the last 10 years, the workplace setting has become a new research topic in the field of signed language interpreting. This research, an adapted study from Birr (2010), looked at the language preferences among Deaf employees at the Department of Defense (DoD). Participants assessed an interpretation from spoken English to American Sign Language (ASL) and a transliteration from spoken English to contact sign. They then provided feedback regarding the two language models and which language model they preferred for each of eight specific settings commonly found in the federal government environment. This study considered various factors influencing the language …