ASL Interpreter Hats

Sign language interpreters spend their working lives saying other people's words, and a few have become famous for it. Lydia Callis, who interpreted for Mayor Bloomberg at the Hurricane Sandy press conferences in October 2012, became an internet sensation and inspired an SNL sketch. Holly Maniatty went viral interpreting concerts from Jay-Z to Springsteen, Amber Galloway Gallego broke through at Lollapalooza in 2013, and a WAP interpreter had TikTok's attention. The job has its own jokes. Interpreters are ethically bound not to alter the message, so profanity is relayed as it was delivered. The work also carries a documented risk of repetitive stress injury and carpal tunnel, and an RIT study found interpreters at high ergonomic risk, which is the joke behind the workers' comp line. Two lines here, That's Not A Good Sign and Learn Sign Language It's Very Handy, already sell on ASL hats elsewhere. NIC is the current generalist credential, so certification gifts are a natural fit for this page. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. They are for working interpreters, ASL teachers and students, and the people who buy for them: a certification, a graduation, or the colleague who signs the guitar solo.