Inside Iowa State

Inside Archives

Submit news

Send news for Inside to inside@iastate.edu, or call (515) 294-7065. See publication dates, deadlines.

About Inside

Inside Iowa State, a newspaper for faculty and staff, is published by the Office of University Relations.

Oct. 20, 2006

Carrie Wood signing for a student.

Carrie Wood

Fluent in sign language

Carrie Wood is one of two professional, licensed sign language interpreters on campus. She works with deaf and hearing-impaired students to ensure they have equal access to higher education. If you think sign language interpreters just show up and start translating, guess again. They read ahead to prep for classes, maintain a broad knowledge base and keep up with current events. Knowing sign language runs much deeper than just knowing the words, said Wood. It's equivalent to being fluent in another language. American Sign Language (ASL) has its own sentence structure and grammar, and Wood sometimes swings back and forth from ASL to signed English depending on the preference or needs of the student. The Academic Success Center also offers captioning services for students who have that preference. Oct. 23-27 is Disability Awareness Week on campus. Photo by Bob Elbert.