CITS Creates a Barrier-Free Linguistic Environment in the Astrakhan Region

On the first day of winter the Caspian Interpreting Translation School of ASU held a traditional event on the occasion of the International Day of People with Disabilities. A huge number of guests, partners and like-minded people came to participate in the project “Accessible Linguistic Environment” which has already been implemented for a year and is aimed at development of barrier-free environment both in our university and in the region as a whole.

The CITS team shared numerous outcomes of their work: the school held 3 courses on the basics of Russian Sign Language and Deaf community culture for beginners and intermediate students, organized summer intern for the attendants of Russian Sign Language course in the regional branch of multifunctional center “Obereg”, arranged master classes for deaf people in hairdressing and photography Besides, an agreement was reached with the Faculty of Law and the Department of Alternative Energy to hold open lectures for deaf young people. Specialists of the school participated in an educational program by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.

In addition, the CITS team represented by Ulyana Savelyeva and Natalia Sergeeva won the contest “Practices of Personal Philanthropy and Altruism” of the Vladimir Potanin Charity Foundation. This victory now makes it possible to hold a team-building event “We are Together” – a social event aimed at bringing together the deaf and the hearing people community.

It is worth noting that CITS is launching a new project on development of typhlo-commenting to create an accessible linguistic environment for the blind and visually impaired. The urgency of this issue cannot be denied – in fact, there is only one specialist in the Astrakhan region for typhlo-commenting! CITS of ASU sets goal to change this situation and train interpreters for this category of citizens as well. Chairmen of regional organizations of the All-Russian Society of the Blind Alina Markhabaeva and Evgeniy Shumatov were present at the event and also expressed their readiness to cooperate in the development of a barrier-free environment for the blind and visually impaired.

Apart from high guests, we were happy to see among our guests, deaf and hard of hearing kids who are now students of the Astrakhan Governor’s College, and, we hope, potential students of ASU.