Featured In Chicago Tribune: ASL interpreters Visualize Noise for Deaf Fans at Lollapalooza and Beyond
Jul 31, 2017
1 min read
According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, 37.5 million Americans have trouble hearing — that's why ASL music interpreter Amber Galloway-Gallego does what she does.
Videos of her appearances, from Lollapalooza to Austin City Limits, have gone viral — her pink-streaked hair whipping back and forth as she uses her whole body (facial expressions included) to emphasize the hard-spitting nature of Kendrick Lamar's rhymes, or the gentle chord progression from Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge."
These videos have brought wider awareness to the necessity of these interpreters at concerts for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
But, it wasn't always this way.
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Explaining festival sign language interpreting to a general news audience is genuinely hard, and the Chicago Tribune piece manages it. Keeping the video references together is what Reference to Video does.
I was at Lolla that year and Amber’s energy was unreal—gave me chills even in the heat. btw, if you’re planning any outdoor fests, check this live weather map before you go; saved me from a total soak-down at ACL last fall.