[Video description: two narrators signing to the camera with a solid white background. The narrator in the left is Janice McCann (a Mexican-American woman) wearing a gray-patterned top with a black shirt and a pair of black pants) and the one in the right is Topher Gonzalez (a Mexican-American man wearing a black v-neck sweater with a white dress shirt and a gray tie and a pair of black pants).

Topher: "Hi, I'm Topher Gonzalez."

A black text appears to the right of Topher,
"Topher Gonzalez
Conference Co-Chair"

Janice: "Hi, I'm Janice McCann."

A black text appears to the left of Janice,
"Janice McCann
Conference Co-Chair"

Topher: "We're excited to make an announcement for the TSID 2018 conference. We're noticing current discussions in the sign language interpreting profession relating to social justice, privilege, and intersectionality. These discussions examine how such concepts impact our profession and those with whom we work and serve."

The text next to the narrators disappear. The narrators continue signing to the camera.

Janice: "Some others ignore or even dismiss these as trending concepts that will disappear [once newer ideas and approaches to our work come along]."

Topher: "Yes, our profession has experienced the pendulum swing of various service models, historically evolving from Helper to Machine, then Communication Facilitator, Bi-Bi, and Ally Models."

Janice: "There is a movement across today’s society that asks us to become more cognizant and deliberate in our work. Power dynamics, disempowerment, inclusivity, social justice, intersectionality, and privileges are significant topics to know."

Topher: "We must not discount this movement as merely a trend, but embrace it as a part of our interpreting profession."

Janice: "Doing so requires both conscious and subconscious recognition that we can only truly be effective in providing effective communication access when Deaf and Hard of Hearing community members guide our path forward."

Topher: "Join us for a series of discussions and collaboration focused on unpacking in order to gain understanding with the goal of uniting our communities."

Both smile at the camera. The video cuts to a white background showing text, "TSID 2018" and the conference logo below. The conference logo is a bulb with an open box inside. The light bulb itself transition from black-and-white to full color. A text then appears below the conference logo, "Unpacking. Understanding. Uniting." The video cuts to a white background with black text, "tsidconference.org" then a different black text, "Registration opens October 15, 2017."]

See “Session Summaries” webpage for documents shared by presenters.

Download the Conference Guide in PDF