Adapting Production for a Mixed Deaf and Hearing Audience
A student must give a 2-minute signed presentation to a mixed audience: six Deaf adults who are fluent Auslan users, four hearing adults who are learning Auslan at a beginner level, and one hearing teacher who does not sign. A spoken interpreter will be present for the teacher only. The student's draft is fast, uses regional signs and heavy fingerspelling, and relies on subtle facial expression for humour. The task requires that all audience members understand the main points. The student has 15 minutes to revise before presenting.
1. Identify the main production risks in the draft and explain how to revise for the mixed audience.
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The main risks are pace, lexical accessibility, and over-reliance on subtle non-manual humour. Fast signing plus heavy fingerspelling will lose the beginner learners, and regional signs may be unfamiliar to them even if the Deaf adults understand. The student should slow the pace, reduce unnecessary fingerspelling (fingerspell only names and numbers that matter), and replace regional signs with more widely recognised alternatives where possible. Humour should not carry essential content; key points should be stated plainly and repeated in summary. The student should use clear sign boundaries and pauses so beginners can process. The reasoning is that the Deaf adults will tolerate a slightly slower pace, but beginners cannot speed up. The design principle is to target the least experienced signing audience while keeping the content accurate for fluent users.
2. How should the student handle the hearing teacher who does not sign, given only one interpreter is present?
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The student should not change the signed presentation into an English-based performance, because that would reduce clarity for the Deaf audience. Instead, they should ensure the interpreter can follow: provide the interpreter with the structure and key terms beforehand if possible, keep the signing clear and at a steady pace, and pause at section boundaries so interpretation lags do not compound. The student should also make key points visually explicit (numbers, names, order) so the teacher can follow the interpreted version and the visuals reinforce meaning. The reasoning is that the interpreter is the access route for the teacher, and the student's job is to make interpretation feasible through pacing and structure, not to sign in English order. Checking that the teacher understood can be done through the interpreter at the end.