A Deaf Man and an Interpreter Recognized for Accomplishments

In the United Kingdom, a deaf man who set up a business to provide British Sign Language interpreters online has received the Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs. Andrew Thomson, the founder of sign-now.com, will be using his award to expand the business. (If he can find interpreters to hire. According to him, there are only 25 interpreters for the 7,000 deaf people in his country, Scotland, to share).

Here in the United States, Debbie Renner became the mother of a deaf child and it led to a career as a sign language interpreter and teacher. After 22 years of working with deaf students, she is going to get the 2008 Golden Apple award, a statewide award for Washington state. (It is interesting how having a deaf child so often leads a parent into a career working with deaf people. My own mother had worked as an oral interpreter for awhile back when I was a young teenager, and loved the job and she would have stayed if she did not have to leave interpreting to earn enough money to support us.)