Contact us by email at interpreting@alsglobal.net or via phone at 1-800-951-5020 for a free estimate on our ASL and CART services.

Trusted CART & ASL Services in Lynchburg, VA

American Language Services has been helping businesses and other entities reach the deaf and hard of hearing community for more than 35 years. While in-person interpreting, at one time, was the only option, recent technological advances opened the door to other options. Since we offer full-service Video Remote Interpreting (VRI), this article will be comparing Virtual American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting with Communication Access Real-Time Translation (AKA- Closed Captioning & Real Time Subtitling) known as CART.

 Please note that according to the American Disability Act (ADA) that deaf and hard of hearing community have the legal right to receive full access through the use of ASL and or CART services. The ADA prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities and providing ASL interpreters for deaf individuals complies with federal law and promotes equal accessibility.

Some interesting Facts About the City of Lynchburg

• Lynchburg was named for its founder, John Lynch, who at the age of 17 started a ferry service across the James River in 1757. He was also responsible for Lynchburg’s first bridge across the river, which replaced the ferry in 1812.
• In October 1786, the Virginia General Assembly granted John Lynch a charter for a town. The 45 acres granted for the town were his own land. Lynchburg was incorporated as a town in 1805 and as a city in 1852.
• The Monacan Indian tribe lived in the Lynchburg area until well into the 17th century. Their chief village, Rassawek, stood near where the James and Rivanna Rivers meet in Fluvanna County. They were driven westward or killed by the Powhatans and Iroquois. Descendants of the Monacan now live in the Bear Mountain area of Amherst County.
• The Society of Friends, or Quakers, was the first religious group to settle in Lynchburg. Although Charles Lynch, Sr. was a Roman Catholic, his wife, Sarah and daughter were instrumental in founding the South River Meeting House of the Society of Friends, the city’s first house of worship. Although there were many Quakers among early settlers in Lynchburg, the numbers decreased as agriculture and industry in the South became increasingly dependent upon slavery, which the Friends opposed. The Meeting House, located on Fort Avenue, was restored and is now part of Quaker Memorial Presbyterian Church.
• Built in 1791 by John Miller, a tavern owner and later owned by Samuel Claytor, the Miller-Claytor House was the fourth house to be constructed in Lynchburg. It was moved from the corner of 8th Street and Church Street to Riverside Park and restored in 1936 as a Sesquicentennial project of the Lynchburg Historical Society.
• College Hill, Garland Hill, Daniel’s Hill, Federal Hill, Diamond Hill, White Rock Hill, and Franklin Hill were the original “Seven Hills” of the City of Lynchburg.
• Samuel Miller, born on June 30, 1792 in Albemarle County, made a fortune buying and selling stocks and bonds. Upon his death, he left money to establish the Miller Home for Girls in Lynchburg and the Miller Home for Boys in Albemarle County. He also left Miller Park to the City of Lynchburg for the benefit of all citizens.
• Built around 1815 by Dr. George Cabell, Sr., an eminent physician whose most famous patient was Patrick Henry. Point of Honor was the home of important Lynchburg area families, including the Daniels, Paynes, and Owens. Although not documented, it is possible that at some time Point of Honor may have been used as a dueling ground. However, since dueling was prohibited, it is speculated it occurred on the property in Campbell County to escape the Lynchburg magistrate.
• As early as 1815, the Federal style structure known today as the Joseph Nichols Tavern was a thriving “ordinary” or inn, near an extension of the Old Ferry Road, now the corner of Fifth and Madison Streets. It is probable that Thomas Jefferson lodged at the Tavern on his way from Monticello to Poplar Forest. In the 1840s the site became known as the Western Hotel and has since served as a hotel, a brothel and a rooming house. It was restored in 1975.
• According to local legend, Thomas Jefferson, who was visiting the owners of the Miller-Claytor House on his way to his Poplar Forest home, took a bite of the “poisonous love apple.” Supposedly, this was the first time anyone in Virginia had eaten this fruit, which we now call the tomato.
• Max Guggenheimer, Jr., born in Germany in 1856, was a leader in Lynchburg’s business community. Guggenheimer joined his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Guggenheimer, in running the Guggenheimer store. Soon after his brother-in-law’s death, Guggenheimer closed the retail business and began the first wholesale distributing house for shoes and boots in Lynchburg, called Witt and Watkins. Guggenheimer served as director of the Lynchburg National Bank and organized and served as the first president of the Lynchburg Cotton Mill. In the last quarter of the 19th century and the early 20th century, he enjoyed the prestige of being called “Lynchburg’s First Citizen.”
• Packet Boat “Marshall,” located in Riverside Park, carried General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s body to Lexington after he was mistakenly killed by his own sentry. On May 10, 1863, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad brought Jackson’s remains to Lynchburg and made the transfer to the packet boat with the appropriate ceremonies.
• From April 6 to 10, 1865, Lynchburg served as the capital of Virginia. Under Governor William Smith, the executive and legislative branches of the Commonwealth moved to Lynchburg for the few days between the fall of Richmond and the fall of the Confederacy.
• On July 11, 1870, a system of public schools was established by law in Virginia. The Lynchburg public school system officially began September 22, 1870. Abram Frederick Biggers, great-grandson of John Lynch, was Lynchburg’s first superintendent of schools.
• In October 1868, Dr. Malcolm (Mahlon) Loomis, a part-time resident of Lynchburg, used a vertical antenna, a high-frequency detector and a sparkgap transmitter to successfully send electro-magnetic waves through the atmosphere, thus inventing radio, six years before the birth of the “father of radio,” Guglielmo Marconi. Despite records that indicate Loomis invented the radio, he lacked the necessary funds to perfect his equipment and gain recognition for his invention.
• In 1881, Lynchburg native William D. Diuguid invented the church truck by putting wheels on a catafalque, which had long been used as a stationary resting place for caskets. The church truck is still used by funeral directors nationwide. W. D. Diuguid, Inc., was founded in 1817 and is the second oldest funeral home in continuing service in the United States.
• Lynchburg’s Centennial celebration was held October 12 – 15, 1886, in conjunction with the Agricultural Fair. Festivities included a parade, fireworks, a band and horse races. John Warwick Daniel gave the opening address. On November 29, a centennial oak tree was planted in Miller Park. The tree is still standing today. In 1886 Lynchburg was the fourth largest city in Virginia; there were 49 miles of street, five of which were paved.
• In 1889, Dr. Charles Brown Fleet, a young pharmacist who moved to Lynchburg in 1869, invented and began selling his Fleet’s Chap-Stick lip balm. In 1893, Fleet developed the formula for phospho-soda, the basic ingredient for the Fleet Enema. Organized as C.B. Fleet Co., Inc., in 1916, the company developed the first disposable, small volume enema in 1953 and the first disposable douche product, Summer’s Eve, in 1973.
• Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (currently named Randolph College and is now co-ed) was the first women’s college in the South to be accredited and to receive a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Founded in 1893 by Dr. William Waugh Smith, the college represented the South as one of the sixteen colleges for women in the United States classified “Division A” by the United States Bureau of Education in the early 1900s. It was ranked with Vassar and Smith.
• In 1895, Dr. A. W. Terrell and Dr. Samuel Lile established the first hospital on record in Lynchburg—St. Andrew’s Home, a private hospital at 917 Court Street. Terrell was the physician for Randolph-Macon Woman’s College for 49 years.
• In 1888, John Craddock, A. P. Craddock, T.M. Terry and Max Guggenheimer formed Craddock-Terry and Company as a wholesale distributing house for “boots, shoes and rubbers.” The firm later became The Craddock-Terry Shoe Corporation and in 1901 built the first shoe factory south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
• In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, H.E. McWane turned two companies, known as Lynchburg Foundry Company and Griffin Pipe Products, into prosperous enterprises whose principal activity was manufacturing cast-iron pipe and fittings. Lynchburg was the first southern city in which cast-iron pipe was made, and in 1936 pipe and fittings became one of Lynchburg’s principal industries, employing some 600 persons in the city. Today, Griffin Pipe Products still manufactures cast-iron pipe for municipal water systems.
• Anne Spencer, a black poet born February 8, 1882 in Henry County, is the only Virginian whose works are included in the Norton Anthology of Modern American and British Poetry. After settling in Lynchburg, she established Lynchburg’s first lending library for blacks and helped found the local chapter of the NAACP. Frequent visitors to the Spencer home at 1313 Pierce Street included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Dr. George Washington Carver, W.E.B. DuBois and Jackie Robinson.
• Extending from Church Street to Court Street with 139 steps, Monument Terrace was built in 1924 as a memorial to citizens who fought and died in American wars. At that time the original basin, located at the base of the monument steps, was replaced with a listing of Lynchburg’s WWI dead and Charles Keck’s representative of a doughboy, “The Listening Post.”
• Virginia Christian College, later renamed Lynchburg College and currently now called University of Lynchburg, was the first college to offer coeducation facilities in Central Virginia. The College began its first session in 1903 with 155 pupils. Although founder Dr. Josephus Hopwood believed in coeducation, men and women were not allowed to sit together at either classes or meals, unless they were brothers and sisters. Virginia Christian College was changed to Lynchburg College in 1919.

Reference Sources: LynchburgVA.gov

Lynchburg ASL & CART Language Interpreters

American Language Services is known for our high-quality, In-person and Virtual interpreters, as well as the outstanding client services we provide. We work in 200+ languages including Legal and Medical Certified and Qualified.  ASL and CART are the fastest growing languages in Lynchburg today a language interpreter can be a very underestimated professional in the world today. There are over 100 languages spoken in the Lynchburg Metro area alone. Many of us know one language, and we specialize in one field of study. Our Lynchburg Interpreters are fluent in English and at least one other language, and they are knowledgeable in a wide range of specialized fields including legal, medical, technical, manufacturing, and engineering.

A brief history of ASL Interpreting in Lynchburg

Most people know that ASL stands for American Sign Language. But not everyone knows that it is a distinct language—not simply an offshoot of American English. Though its beginnings are murky, many believe that ASL originated from a merger of French Sign Language (SLF) and local U.S. sign languages. While ASL and SLF are distinct languages, there are still some similarities between their signs.

What actually is ASL?   ASL a complete, natural language that has the same linguistic properties as spoken languages with grammar however that differs from English. ASL is expressed by movements of the hands and face.  ASL is a language completely separate and distinct from English. It contains all the fundamental features of language, with its own rules for pronunciation, word formation, and word order.  Because of the physical nature of ASL, a two-person team of ASL interpreters is required for assignments longer than 1 hour in duration.

The National Center for Health Statistics claims that 28 million Americans have some degree of hearing loss, though only between two and eight percent of them are natural ASL speakers.  Helping these select individuals translate the audible into the understandable is the job of an ASL interpreter.  If you have ever been to a play, a concert or watched a government briefing, you have probably seen an ASL interpreter signing just out of view.  An interesting side note is that Statista estimates that there are currently around 60,000 active ASL interpreters in the USA.

The Benefits of ASL Interpreting in Lynchburg

When it comes to communicating with hard-of-hearing or deaf audiences, there are a few reasons you might want to opt for a Lynchburg ASL interpreter over CART services. These include:

• A More Personal Connection: A real person has several advantages over a computer screen. First, human interpreters have an easier time conveying emotion. Second, they are better equipped to point out speakers and assist with pronunciation issues. Finally, an interpreter gives a deaf or hard of hearing person a chance to bond with another person.
• Enhanced Speed: Skilled interpreters can hold pace with even the fastest speakers. Lack of delay makes it easier for deaf and hard of hearing individuals to keep up with the conversation.
• Cost Effective:  While costs range by the type of ASL you need (Legal, medical, business, etc.) and when the assignment is scheduled, the cost off ASL, across the board, is less money than CART.

What Is CART?

While the majority of people know what American Sign Language is, the same cannot be said for Communication Access Real-Time Translation. Often referred to as CART, this communication method for the deaf and hard of hearing is best described as subtitling for live discussions. Unlike ASL, which relies on a professional interpreter, CART services are provided by a well-trained stenographer or transcriptionist. They transcribe anything said and then broadcast the resulting text to a phone, computer, or TV screen.

CART is often seen as a cost-effective and efficient way to ensure everybody can follow along. While often used to help deaf students in the classroom, CART captioning benefits anyone that can read.  Much like ASL interpreting, it can be done both onsite with a physical transcriptionist or remotely with an offsite one.

Why You Should Consider CART for the Lynchburg Market

Communication Access Real-Time Translation is growing in popularity due to the following characteristics:

• It Serves a Wider Array of Deaf People: If you do a little math, you will realize that 65 percent of hard-of-hearing people in the USA do not speak ASL fluently. CART makes it so these people can join in on the conversation as well.
• CART Makes It Scalable: While people in the front rows can easily make out what an interpreter is signing, it gets harder as the distance increases. Since captions can be beamed to multiple screens simultaneously, they do not have to factor speaker distance into the equation.
• The Text Provides a Written Record: Having a transcript of everything your professor said would be a godsend come finals. Having a record of a meeting can also provide clarity to all those involved as well. The physical nature of CART recording makes that possible. This ability is one reason so many college students opt for CART over traditional ASL interpreting. 

About American Language Services

Founded in 1985, American Language Services was there to help pioneer the rise in remote ASL interpreting options. Our dedication to quality and client satisfaction in interpreting allowed us to shift from a one-woman agency into one of the most successful language agencies in the world. Our language experts provide ASL & CART interpreting services to people all around the world. Because of our 24/7 availability, you’ll never have to worry about us not being available, on off times, for an assignment.

AML-Global has some of the most impressive linguistic talents in the world. These highly skilled language professionals are recruited, screened, and tested to ensure high-quality work.

Contact us by email at interpreting@alsglobal.net or via phone at 1-800-951-5020 for a free estimate on our ASL and CART services.