The stage is finally set for the grand finale of the Ultimate Interpreter Challenge. The contest which began early in March will reach its peak this Saturday 20th March at the Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo.
Hosted by Seams Consult, the challenge has as its major aim, the improvement of Sign Language interpretation skills in Nigeria.
It is no longer news that Sign Language interpretation in Nigeria has suffered a lot of setbacks which include a great deal of retrogression and non-workable code of professional conduct for practitioners over the years.
Another major motive behind the Ultimate Interpreter Challenge is to raise abounding awareness about the Deaf community and her unique language – thereby proposing a way forward to standardizing the Sign language interpreting profession.
The first round of the competition, it may be recalled had sixty-one contestants pitted against each other. From these, thirty-five qualified for the second round. Interestingly, fifteen contestants qualified for the grand finale but for some reasons two were eliminated. The remaining thirteen will be showcasing their interpreting skills to determine who carts home the grand prize.
The Deaf community is currently agog, with members making random guesses on possible winner of the grand prize – a whopping sum of #300,000.