I'm used to seeing sign language, hand gestures. But the episode of "Judge Judy" that I just watched the translator was positioned in front of the court room and just mouthed all the words that everyone said. He did not use his hands.

That's weird.

In an earlier life I was a sign interpreter for the deaf. Actually did court room interpreting in San Diego. About 95% of the time it included hand signing. But, one man grew up hearing and became deaf later in life. Sign language was very difficult for him and he relied on lip reading. So, when he went to court I did NOT use sign language but mouthed the words. It's often difficult to understand lip reading from unfamiliar people (mustaches, fat lips, etc).

Not at all unusual for a marginally signing deaf person to rely on an interpreter that he / she can easily lip read.

Interestingly, I’m seeing a very cute deaf provider soon. He gently asked me if I might have a problem with his deafness and I replied “absolutely not!”.

On 3/30/2019 at 10:25 PM, OneFinger said:

In an earlier life I was a sign interpreter for the deaf. Actually did court room interpreting in San Diego. About 95% of the time it included hand signing. But, one man grew up hearing and became deaf later in life. Sign language was very difficult for him and he relied on lip reading. So, when he went to court I did NOT use sign language but mouthed the words. It's often difficult to understand lip reading from unfamiliar people (mustaches, fat lips, etc).

Not at all unusual for a marginally signing deaf person to rely on an interpreter that he / she can easily lip read.

My mother has a fairly significant hearing impairment that hearing aids help, but not perfectly. In her mid-fifties she decided to rejoin the workforce, and sought out a local teacher in lip-reading to prepare. After a six-month course, she said, ‘Why on earth didn’t I do this years ago?’