American Sign Language (ASL) & CART Services In Charleston, NC

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.

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 Charleston

Charleston’s In 1663, England’s King Charles II awarded the Carolina territory to eight loyal friends who had helped him regain the throne after years in exile. In 1670, the first expedition sailed across the Atlantic and established the province’s first settlement, which they called Charles Town. The name would hold until after the American Revolution, when victorious colonists shortened the name to Charleston.
The Ashley and Cooper Rivers, which border Charleston’s historic central district, are named for the same man. Anthony Ashley Cooper, formally known as the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, was one of King Charles’ buddies—or “Lord Proprietors,” as they were known. He’s credited with picking Charleston’s location (just west of where it’s currently situated), and with establishing a progressive “Grand Modell” for the town’s development along with his assistant, John Locke.
In 1761, two tornadoes—one barreling down the Ashley River, the other down the Cooper River—converged over Charleston’s harbor. So powerful was the combined twister, one witness wrote, that it “ploughed the Ashley River to the bottom and lay the channel bare.” Four people were killed and five ships sunk.
Charleston was the frequent target of pirate attacks in its early days. In 1718, none other than Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, attacked several ships trying to enter the harbor. He took hostages and ransomed them for a chest of medicine.
Up until the early 19th century, Charleston had the largest Jewish population of any city in North America. Historians trace this to Cooper and Locke’s original charter, which expressed tolerance for all religions—well, except for Catholicism. Cooper and other English royals were not on good terms with the Roman Catholic Church. 6. In 1776, colonists holed up in a makeshift fort on
Sullivan’s Island traded fire with nine British warships bent on conquering Charleston. The fort’s commander, William Moultrie, called it “one continual blaze and roar.” The battle lasted several hours, but Fort Sullivan’s palmetto logs held up against the barrage, and eventually the attacking fleet retreated. The effort staved off British occupation for four years and became a symbol of American resilience. The fort was renamed Fort Moultrie, in honor of its commander, and South Carolina adopted the flag Moultrie flew as its state flag, adding in an image of a palmetto tree for additional symbolic value.
Another famous fort didn’t fare as well, of course. In 1861, Confederate forces fired the Civil War’s first shots on Fort Sumter, situated in Charleston Harbor. According to writer Mary Chestnut, locals took in the 34-hour spectacle in a very Southern fashion: Sitting on their porches, toasting to the event.
Stroll around Charleston and you’ll notice numerous homes accented with a dark green known as Charleston Green. The story goes that after the Civil War, the Union sent buckets of black paint for residents to use when fixing up their damaged homes. Rather than use only Yankee black, however, citizens mixed in a bit of Southern yellow and created the distinctively dark hue.
In 2008, the Toni Morrison Society—inspired by her comments about the need for memorials dedicated to the victims of America’s slave trade—built a bench on Sullivan’s Island, where nearly 40 percent of slaves landed following the Middle Passage. This was the first monument in the society’s “Bench by the Road” project, which has placed benches around the world in locations significant to slavery and black history.
There are numerous stories about why the colonial-era houses along Charleston’s Rainbow Row are so colorful. One states that the colors helped drunken sailors identify their lodgings, while another says merchants used them to identify goods sold in each building. The truth, though, is decidedly less colorful: In 1935, a judge and his wife decided to paint their home a lively pink, and their neighbors followed suit.
On August 31, 1886, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the southeast United States occurred near Charleston. The 7.8-magnitude quake, which damaged buildings in states as far away as Ohio, killed 60 people and caused more than $5 million in damages. Included in that estimate were more than 14,000 destroyed chimneys.
A local orphanage significantly influenced the development of jazz music in South Carolina and throughout the U.S. Established in 1891 by the Reverend Daniel J. Jenkins, the Jenkins Orphanage taught its young residents how to read and play music on donated instruments. It also formed the Jenkins Orphanage Band, which traveled the country. Over time, the students developed a swinging style that became a hit with audiences far and wide. While touring in New York, the band’s playful dance moves (borrowed from Charleston’s Geechie culture), inspired composer James P. Johnson, who composed a song called “The Charleston.” Along with the accompanying dance, it quickly became a nationwide craze and a symbol of the jazz age.
Local author DuBose Heyward’s 1925 novel Porgy offered readers a look at Charleston’s Gullah community, and inspired George Gershwin’s folk opera Porgy and Bess. To get a close look at the culture of Catfish Row, in 1934 Gershwin decamped from New York and spent the summer living on Folly Island, where he composed alongside Heyward.
In 1969, workers at the South Carolina Medical College Hospital went on strike to protest substandard pay and working conditions for minorities. The strike, which lasted four months, resulted in improvements for employees, and became a model for healthcare labor efforts. It’s also seen as a seminal moment in the Civil Rights movement, having drawn the support of such luminaries as Coretta Scott King and Ralph Abernathy.
For seventeen days every summer, Charleston’s theaters, churches, and other performance spaces fill up with live music, plays, operas, and dance numbers. The Spoleto Festival, modeled after a similar festival in Italy, features new and established performers from around the world. Yo-Yo Ma played at the inaugural festival in 1978, shortly after graduating from Harvard [PDF].
The first theater in America, the Dock Street Theatre, was built in 1736 on the corner of Church and Dock Street. It burned down just a few years later, in 1740, but 200 years later the city built a new Dock Street Theatre, which continues to stage performances to this day.
Speaking of firsts, the Charleston Museum is widely believed to be the country’s oldest museum. Founded in 1773 as a storehouse for natural and local history collections, the museum is today dedicated to preserving and showcasing artifacts from South Carolina’s Lowcountry.
Charleston may not have a pro sports team, but it does have a Gaelic hurling club and a roller derby league called the Lowcountry Highrollers.
Charleston’s minor league baseball team, meanwhile, is partly owned by Bill Murray. Because of course it is. Murray, whose official title with the team is “Director of Fun,” owns a home near Charleston and can be frequently spotted around town.
The city’s restaurant scene has exploded over the past several years, with chefs like Sean Brock and Mike Lata putting a contemporary spin on traditional Lowcountry cuisine. Husk, one of the city’s hotspots, only sources ingredients from below the Mason Dixon line, while Xiao Bao Biscuit serves what it calls “Asian Soul Food.” Of course, establishments like Martha Lou’s Kitchen and Bowen’s Island Restaurant, which have been pleasing locals and tourists alike for decades, may wonder what all the fuss is about.
South Carolina’s oldest public building is a former gunpowder storage facility called the Powder Magazine. Built in 1713, back when Charleston was walled in to protect against land and sea attacks, the small building features three-foot thick walls and a thin, gabled roof—an ingenious design that, were all that powder to ignite, would send the explosion shooting upwards rather than outwards.
One of Charleston’s most famous sons, Stephen Colbert, grew up on James Island. After his father and two brothers died tragically in a 1974 plane crash, Colbert’s mother moved the family to East Bay Street in the city’s downtown, where she ran a now-defunct bed and breakfast.
The Charleston City Market is one of the country’s oldest public markets. First opened in 1804, it featured meat, fish, and vegetable vendors, and was notorious for the flocks of buzzards (affectionately called “Charleston Eagles”) that would swoop down for scraps. These days, the market features an enclosed, air-conditioned Great Hall as well as open-air sheds selling everything from handmade baskets to stone-ground grits.
The first golf club in North America, the South Carolina Golf Club, opened in 1786 on a peninsula field known as Harleston Green (really!). Back then, the ball was known as a “feathery,” and the holes didn’t have flags, tee boxes or a putting green.
All of Charleston’s traditional multi-level homes, or “single houses,” feature piazzas that face south or west in order to take advantage of cooling breezes. Back in the 18th and 19th century, that was the closest residents could get to air conditioning.

Reference Sources: MentalFloss

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

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 Charleston

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