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Janet Acevedo

Director, American Sign Language/English Interpreting Program, IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI

Janet Acevedo, the director of the American Sign Language (ASL)/English Interpreting Program in the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, has a passion for interpreting that began forty years ago. She discovered ASL at the Deafness Research and Training Center at New York University in 1971 when interpreting for people who are deaf was just beginning to gain recognition as a professionalized field.

Before accepting her current position in 2008 with Liberal Arts, she coordinated interpreting services at IUPUI's Adaptive Educational Services for ten years. In that role, she ensured all deaf students, faculty, and staff were provided with qualified interpreters. Now, as the Director of the ASL/English Interpreting Program, she's responsible for hiring and supervising ASL and interpreting instructors, advising students, and coordinating IUPUI's collaboration with Vincennes University's ASL Studies associate's degree program.

"There is a huge need for qualified, dedicated, knowledgeable, professional interpreters who understand they work for both people who are deaf and people who can hear in situations where neither of those people use the same language," Acevedo says. "Because of that it has been easy for me to be in the right place at the right time to get these amazing jobs!" After graduating from college in 1970, Acevedo stopped in New York to visit family and decided to stay, taking a job as a secretary at NYU's then newly established Deafness Research and Training Center (DRTC).

She learned to sign while working with deaf professionals and interpreted phone calls for her bosses. She fell in love with the work, earned a master's degree in Counseling and began traveling with teams of professionals from the DRTC all over the country. They taught social workers, educators, counselors and other professionals to work with deaf people.

Dr. Susan Shepherd, associate professor of English, who was instrumental in creating IUPUI's ASL program, says Acevedo brings forty years of experience as a working interpreter. "She's already worked on building and improving mentoring experiences for our students and has good plans for continued improvement," Shepherd says. "I value Janet's commitment to ensuring that our students get more direct experience with using ASL and interpreting."

Acevedo has ambitious plans for the IUPUI program. She hopes to create an entrance screening and proficiency exam, work toward accreditation of the program, create courses that are in alignment with IUPUI's R.I.S.E. initiatives and learning requirements, and eventually create study abroad opportunities for her students.

Acevedo has plenty of experience to make these changes a reality. "I have such a love for interpreting, and have experienced so many different areas of human activity in so many different places in the world," she says. "Training others to be excellent at interpreting and to care deeply about developing their skills and commitment to the communities they work in continues to be exciting and challenging for me. I love sharing it with people who are new to the field of interpreting."

--Melanie Williams, Liberal Arts News Bureau

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