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 Tallahassee, FL

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 Tallahassee

• “Tallahassee” is a Muskogean word approximately meaning “old fields.”
• Tallahassee was founded in 1821 and it became Florida’s capital city in 1824.
• It was selected because it was roughly centered between Pensacola and St. Augustine, the capitals of West Florida and East Florida, two former Spanish colonies.
• Tally came close to losing capital status in the 1960s with a push to move it to Orlando, which is considerably closer to major growth spots in the state like the Tampa Bay and Miami areas.
• The city’s second and current capitol building, built in 1977, is the third-tallest capitol building in the U.S. (after Washington, D.C., and Austin). It’s 22 stories high.
• If you go to the top floor, there’s an art gallery and large windows all around providing panoramic views of the city.
• While camped out in what’s now Tallahassee in the winter of 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his group are believed to have been the first people to celebrate Christmas in the continental U.S.
• Union forces captured every Confederate state capitol city east of the Mississippi River except for one during the Civil War: you guessed it—Tallahassee.
• Florida’s capital city is known today as a college town, but it’s been that way for well over 150 years. In 1843, the Tallahassee Female Academy was founded and in 1854, The Florida Institute was founded. Two seminaries were also built in the early 1850s.
• All these schools eventually became part of Florida State University, the city’s largest college.
• Tally is also home to the country’s biggest historically black university by enrollment, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, AKA Florida A&M or FAMU.
• This is one of the hottest places in the state in the summer. It’s one of the few Florida cities that hits temperatures over 100 from time to time.
• However, it’s also one of the coldest places in the state during the winter.
• In 1899, Tallahassee temps hit -2 degrees during a historic blizzard. It’s the only recorded instance of a below-zero reading in all of Florida.
• The city’s record snowfall accumulation is 2.8 inches on February 13, 1958.
• On average, Tally gets a measurable quantity of snow once every 17 years.
• The city, and Leon County as a whole, consistently has one of the highest voter turnout percentages in all of Florida’s 67 counties.
• For the general election in 2008, the county set a state record with an 86 percent turnout.
• The Tallahassee Police Department is the third oldest in the nation. Founded in 1841, only the Philadelphia and Boston PDs predate it.
• FSU’s Doak Campbell Stadium holds 82,300 spectators. It’s the biggest Atlantic Coast Conference football stadium.
• It’s also the country’s biggest continuous brick structure.
• The university also offers students the opportunity to tour the world as circus performers if they join the extracurricular FSU Flying High Circus.
• FSU has a long history of student activism and is believed to be where streaking was invented.
• The highest-powered magnet laboratory on Earth is at FSU’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.
• Its magnets can produce a magnetic field one million times more powerful than our planet’s magnetic field.
• Tally hosts one of the world’s top equestrian eventing competitions. It’s called the Red Hill Horse Trials.
• It also hosts one of the largest, most attended festivals in the South, Springtime Tallahassee, which has been running annually since 1967. 
• The Tallahassee Automobile Museum has Abraham Lincoln’s horse-drawn hearse on display.
• The 68,000-acre St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, founded in 1931, is one of the nation’s oldest wildlife refuges.
• You can see the historic St. Marks Lighthouse there, which was completed in 1842.
• In the early 20th century, the St. Marks railroad transported cotton and other products to the coast for shipping. The route’s been paved and is now a 20.5-mile-long nature trail.
• The John G. Riley House, built in 1890, is the last remaining piece of history from the middle-class African American community that thrived in downtown Tallahassee at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, it’s a museum.
• The Tallahassee Automobile is home to the real Batmobiles from “Batman Forever” and “Batman Returns,” as well as replicas of several other Batman-related vehicles.
• It also has steam-powered cars and amphibious vehicles.
• You can see Tallahassee’s oldest resident—an approximately 10-foot-tall mastodon skeleton named Herman—at The Museum of Florida History. He’s over 12,000 years old.
• Lichgate on High Road is a little-known fairy tale cottage and historic site open to the public. The land was bought by FSU literature professor Dr. Laura Pauline Jepsen in large part to protect a majestic, ancient live oak now known as the Lichgate Oak.
• The Railroad Square Art Park district hosts the monthly First Friday gallery hop. About 2,000 people usually show up for the three-hour event. 38. Creed, one of the biggest bands of the late 1990s and early 2000s, was formed in Tally. 
• Singer-songwriter, rapper, producer, and actor T-Pain also comes from Tallahassee. In fact, that’s what the “T” stands for.
• Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos Cookies, was born and raised in Tally, too.
• The Mission San Luis de Apalachee was one of the first Spanish missions in North America. It was built in 1633.
• It was destroyed in 1704. Today, it’s the only reconstructed Spanish mission of the state and it operates as a museum.
• Tally has Florida’s most educated population. About half the residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Elizabeth Budd-Graham’s final resting place is the most visited tomb in the City Cemetery. She died in 1889 at the age of 23, and her elaborate grave is marked by a very large, expensive tombstone that instantly attracts attention.
• Local lore claims that Elizabeth, better known as Bessie, was a witch. Hers is the only grave in the cemetery facing west and the tombstone bears an inscription quoting part of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Lenore.”

Reference Source: Movoto Real Estate

Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee today a language interpreter can be a very underestimated professional in the world today. There are over 100 languages spoken in the Tallahassee Metro area alone. Many of us know one language, and we specialize in one field of study. Our Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee

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 Tallahassee

When it comes to communicating with hard-of-hearing or deaf audiences, there are a few reasons you might want to opt for a Tallahassee 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 Tallahassee 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.