An integrated lecture was held recently at Yamagata Prefectural Takahata High School. The lecture was part of a high school program for the hearing-impaired being jointly promoted by The Nippon Foundation and the Japan College of Social Work. The event was intended to demonstrate that hearing-impaired students can attend university lectures alongside other students, if lecture content and other information can be provided via sign language and PC interpretation.

Integrated lecture with support for the hearing-impaired, incorporating PC interpretation (right) and sign language (far left) at Yamagata Prefectural Takahata High School

The lecture was attended by nine students from the Yamagata School for the Deaf, together with 39 second- and third-year students enrolled in a social welfare course at Takahata High School. Logistical support was provided by representatives from Fukinoto, a local sign language association, and three PC interpreters from Tokyo.

Yamagata School and Takahata High School students exchange views in groups

The lecturers were Miyuki Hirama, the general manager of Yamagata Prefectural Colony Kibogaoka, and Toshikazu Abe, deputy section manager of Okaze Corporation. The students heard about Miyuki Hirama’s experiences with a wheelchair, as well as about the specifics of work undertaken by disabled new young employees at the Okaze Corporation printing company. The students from the two schools then split into groups to exchange views and make presentations.

A professional PC interpreter documents lecture proceedings in near real-time

The lecturers’ words were relayed to Yamagata School students via sign language. Lecture content entered via PC was also displayed in near real-time on a screen set up in front of the classroom.

PC interpretation was implemented through a configuration consisting of three interpreters with linked PCs, whose typed text was displayed on screen. Two interpreters performed the input at any given time, with one interpreter entering the first half of each sentence and another entering the last half, thus minimizing the time required to display each sentence on the screen. At seven-minute intervals, the third interpreter relieved one of the two others, ensuring that the lecture was displayed both rapidly and accurately.

New lines of text are added to the display as older lines are removed. Typos are corrected by adding the correct version in brackets when they are noticed. Since few PC interpreters are currently available in Japan and no official system of qualifications has been established, professional interpreters tend to work together to improve their skills. Such efforts include research on correct terminology in advance of the university lectures.

Students from both schools conversing in sign language

For the students, being able to take in a lecture they couldn’t actually hear by reading the content in near real-time proved a revelatory experience, and they expressed surprise and joy at theh unhindered communication. Takahata High School teachers observing the lecture commented on the landmark nature of PC-based simultaneous interpretation for students at the school, adding that such aids would help students get more from lectures.

Lecturer’s words displayed on a screen

Speaking to students from Yamagata School, Professor Masahiro Tamura from the Japan College of Social Work explained how his college was seeking to provide information and lectures using PC interpretation, sign language interpretation, and note-taking. He reminded students that university study remained a viable option in their choice of educational paths. The same lecture will also be presented in Tokyo and Kyoto.