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Previous TISLR meetings have been held in the United States or Canada where automatically ASL has been one of the conference languages alongside spoken English. Deaf participants from other countries have had to provide their own interpreter from ASL or English into their own sign language. Since TISLR 2000 was held in the Netherlands, the conference languages were Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) and English, so that again Deaf participants from elsewhere had to provide their own interpreters. This situation led to much discussion as to which languages should be the conference languages in the future and as to whether more interpreter services can be centrally provided. Deaf participants felt that this issue must be fully debated and wrote a manifesto for the sign linguistic community (Rathman, Mathur & Boudreault 2000).
The TISLR meeting was attended by a number of Deaf teachers and researchers from the Netherlands and had a considerable national impact through media coverage reinforcing the full status of sign languages as the native languages of Deaf people. This positive influence in the country that holds the meeting must not be forgotten in future planning of these meetings.
Acknowledgments
Since this volume is the result of the TISLR 2000 conference, thanks are due not only to those who have contributed towards the production of this volume but also to those who supported the organization of the conference. The TISLR 2000 meeting was attended by more than 250 participants – these included students of sign linguistics from the University of Amsterdam and from the interpreter and teacher training from the Hogeschool van Utrecht who also assisted with the organization. Members of the Deaf community in the Netherlands were involved in the organization of the meeting from the beginning and also attended the meeting. The Foundation for Welfare of Deaf People (Stichting Welzijn Doven) in Amsterdam collaborated with the organization providing facilities for the opening reception. The meeting had a number of different sponsors. The University of Amsterdam provided much support in terms of work hours and finance from several sources: Central Administration, Committee for Resources for Handicapped and the Emancipation Committee and Research School for Functional Study of Language and Language Use (IFOTT). The University of Leiden provided work hours. The Hogeschool van Utrecht provided work hours but also equipment and finance. Stichting Nederlands Gebarencentrum (Dutch Sign Centre) provided work hours and finance. The Dutch Institute for Scientific Research (NWO), the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences (KNAW) and the Dutch Institute for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Child gave grants. The City Council of Amsterdam provided a reception as did John Benjamins Publishing Company. Thanks are due to all these organizations for their support.
The interpreting service the conference provided in Sign Language of the Netherlands and the coordination of the interpreters from other sign languages worked smoothly thanks to the intensive preparation on the part of the interpreter committee: Mindy Brown, Joni Oyserman and Beppie van den Bogaerde. The organizing committee was responsible for matters such as the social programme, general information, transport etc. It consisted of Johan Wesemann, Harry Knoors, Carla de Jonge, Marijke Scheffener and Anne Baker (chair). The scientific committee had the awesome task of putting the academic programme together. Heleen Bos, Beppie van den Bogaerde, Onno Crasborn and Trude Schermer (chair) were the local members and they were supported by international colleagues Brita Bergman, Penny Boyes-Braem, Ronnie Wilbur and Bencie Woll. Trude Schermer, Beppie van den Bogaerde and Anne Baker (chair) formed the main committee. The editors of this volume thank all of these people for their hard work.
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