American Sign Language interpreter explains his profession and the new pandemic language

Deaf Interpreter David Cowan shares how he's getting important COVID-19 information to the deaf community.

Transcript

00:00

I was born Deaf. I'm really passionate about providing accessibility

00:06

to others in the Deaf community. Coronavirus is so prolific and so contagious,

00:13

so it's a very bad situation for Deaf people to be in.

00:19

So when I'm signing, it's a completely different language. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

00:29

It's a two-step process. Aaron will hear what the governor says and sign the words to me, and then I

00:36

process it based on what a Deaf person will understand and how they will understand it, through interpreting. And I'm reaching out to people in a much more powerful way,

00:45

so that Deaf people can very easily understand what's going on. Deaf interpreters are embedded here in the State Operations

00:53

Center, and Georgia is the first state to do that. So we're kind of the model, if you will, for the rest of the nation.

00:59

That's really what I'm responsible for, is to make sure the message is correct. So interpreting isn't a hobby.

01:06

It's not just something you can play around with and say, oh, hey, isn't this fun? No. It's a serious profession.

01:14

Many of these terms were very new to us. For example, social distancing. The concept is to place space between you and another person.

01:23

Contact tracing. That was a new word. There wasn't an existing sign for it. So for me, it was demonstrating this person has been affected,

01:34

and would be asking the people they'd been around. The word COVID-19, of course. The sign is this.

01:40

Coronavirus. So I've actually studied the film of previous press conferences, and I found out how to add more expression

01:48

and move my body differently. That way, the Deaf can relax their eyes. They can just focus on the content, instead of picking every word apart.

01:57

I love to dance. Yes. I actually won fourth place in a country western dance competition.

02:04

Not bad for a Deaf guy, huh? But really, you know, it's thanks to the Georgia Emergency

02:10

Management Association, to Governor Kemp's office, to All Hands On. It's the cooperation that's led us to make all this possible.

02:20

And it's not just me. I'm just a pretty face. Aaron's the brains of the operation.