Speaker fights for social justice on and off the clock

Being a sign lan­guage inter­preter gives you a win­dow into the most inti­mate details of people’s lives and can put you on the nation­al polit­i­cal stage. Just ask CM Hall, a 2015 TEDxSalem speak­er.

She served as a mem­ber of John Kerry’s senior staff dur­ing his run for pres­i­dent in 2004, includ­ing mak­ing sure ASL inter­preters signed every speech. She has also inter­pret­ed for Pres­i­dent Oba­ma. Five times.

“That’s a pret­ty good gig if you can get it, right?,” she said.

If it sounds like she’s try­ing to recruit inter­preters, it’s no acci­dent. She helped launched a nation­al cam­paign to inspire the next gen­er­a­tion of ASL inter­preters to help fill a short­age.

Now she works as project coor­di­na­tor of the West­ern Region Inter­preter Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter at West­ern Ore­gon Uni­ver­si­ty. She teach­es Deaf­Blind Inter­pret­ing and LGBTQ Stud­ies.

When Hall dis­cov­ered ASL inter­pret­ing in col­lege, she was drawn to the ges­tures. It remind­ed her of the­ater because it embod­ied a con­ver­sa­tion, but it was the social jus­tice piece that hooked her for good.

“When I start­ed to learn about Deaf cul­ture, it sparked my social jus­tice bend. This isn’t about a com­mu­ni­ty with a dis­abil­i­ty,” she said. “This is about a com­mu­ni­ty that is lin­guis­ti­cal­ly and cul­tur­al­ly oppressed.”

Despite ded­i­cat­ing more than 23 years to learn­ing the lan­guage and earn­ing awards for her advo­ca­cy, she still rec­og­nizes that she’s an aud­ist, some­one who behaves or is treat­ed as if they’re supe­ri­or based on the abil­i­ty to hear. If you’re a mem­ber of the hear­ing com­mu­ni­ty, she said, you’re an aud­ist. You can’t help it.

That doesn’t stop her from fight­ing for equal access.

For exam­ple, she coor­di­nates a men­tor­ship pro­gram that match­es sea­soned inter­preters with new inter­preters in 11 states and ter­ri­to­ries to boost qual­i­ty access for the Deaf com­mu­ni­ty. She also fights in lit­tle ways. In July, she start­ed a change.org peti­tion to add the ASL “I Love You” emo­ji to mobile tex­ting appli­ca­tions. She said she feels lucky to do the work that she does.

In her free time, she advo­cates for the LGBTQ com­mu­ni­ty. Yes, she does social jus­tice for fun, too. Cur­rent­ly she chairs the Equal­i­ty PAC for Basic Rights Ore­gon. To learn more about Hall’s life as a sign lan­guage inter­preter, LGBTQ advo­cate and self-described queer, catch her TEDxSalem talk Oct. 3. Get your tick­ets at tedxsalem2015.eventbrite.com.