ASU Expands Interpretation Borders: CITS Is Launching Sign Language Project

On December 3, the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation held a discussion on the issues of inclusive education and creation of a comfortable environment for special-need people. The event was timed to the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, established by the UN and celebrated by UNESCO.

The audience, consisted of ASU students, staff members and invited guests, were welcomed by Rector Konstantin Markelov.

“Higher educational institutions must serve a role model of building an inclusive environment. Speaking about access to education, we mean, among other things, provision of comfortable conditions for everyone. Astrakhan State University seeks to consider all the needs, gladly supports all initiatives, aimed at improving the quality of special-need students’ education, and is ready to develop projects of advancing the competence of professors that work with such students,” said the rector.

One of the topics under discussion was a Russian sign language interpretation course to be launched at Astrakhan State University. For this purpose, four staff members of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation and Faculty of Foreign Languages did a special course at Moscow State Linguistic University within the cooperation agreement. They told the audience about the experience they gained while studying in the programme and showed some basic signs that can help in real-life situations. At the end of the event, they even performed a song with sign language interpretation. The Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation is going to launch a sign language interpretation course for students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages next spring.