Deaf Interpreters at Work: International Insights

Deaf Interpreters: An Introduction

1 Deaf Interpreters: An Introduction Robert Adam, Markus Aro, Juan Carlos Druetta, Senan Dunne, and Juli af Klintberg We, the authors of this chapter, have worked together as Deaf interpreters in various combinations at international events over the years. Our earliest collaborations go back to 2003. We come from different family, cultural, and language backgrounds, but we nonetheless have much in common. We believe that our personal experiences reveal the cultural, political, and social elements of interpreting, and we use this information to describe the skills necessary to become a Deaf interpreter (hereafter, DI). The literature on Deaf interpreting presents differing perspectives on the variety of assignments that call for a DI, who may sometimes work as an assistant to a non-DI and as a professional in the DI’s own right at other times (Adam, 2010). This wide variety of perspectives is problematic because (1) they arise from insufficient knowledge and understanding of what a DI is and what sort of work a DI does, and (2) they may have an adverse impact on the recognition and the employment conditions of a DI. The ultimate aim of this chapter is to provide a better understanding of what makes a DI and to describe the work a DI undertakes in the hope that the information presented here will foster better working relationships between Deaf and non-DIs, both during and outside of interpreting assignments. This would be the best possible service outcome for the Deaf and deaf-blind clients whom we serve. In the following section we offer our brief biographies to describe our background experiences, language inventories, and the types of work we have done. Robert Adam was born in Melbourne, Australia, and his parents are Deaf. His mother’s first language is Australian Irish Sign Language, and his father’s first language is Australian Sign Language (Auslan).As a child, Robert would watch his hearing grandmother draft letters for various Deaf relatives, and this led him to do the same himself. As an adult in the local Deaf club, he was often asked to translate from sign language into 2 : Adam, Aro, Druetta, Dunne, and af Klintberg English (reports, minutes, letters, dissertations, etc.), and this translation work was often reciprocated by Deaf people by using other skills; the favor was returned in kind and not with money. Robert’s first paid interpreting work was with deaf-blind people, and he has done DI work (as a relay interpreter) in mental health, legal, and social work settings. Later he worked as an International Sign platform signer at World Federation of the Deaf congresses, Deaflympic Games, and the International Congress on Education of the Deaf, and he has interpreted between British Sign Language (a dialect of Auslan) and American Sign Language or Irish Sign Language. He is a registered sign language interpreter and a sign language translator in the United Kingdom and undertakes sign language translation from English for websites. MarkusAro was born in Helsinki,Finland.His parents and siblings are Deaf, and his hearing grandfather worked as a volunteer interpreter.After 4 years of full-time study, with a major in interpretation and translation between Finnish and Finnish Sign Language, Markus is now a certified sign language interpreter in Finland. He learned International Sign (IS) by traveling around the world and attending Deaf events, using it informally in contact with Deaf people from various countries. He is now a full-time interpreter working in the legal, deaf-blind, business, leisure time, and religious domains, interpreting between Finnish Sign Language (FinSL), IS, and Finnish, but he interprets only from American Sign Language, Swedish Sign Language, and Finnish-Swedish Sign Language . He is currently CEO of VIPARO (an interpretation and translation company). Senan Dunne is a native of Carlow, Ireland, and is from a mostly hearing family; he has a younger Deaf brother. Senan began attending boarding school in Dublin at the age of 3. He is currently a registered DI, having been registered in Ireland since June 2006, when the first assessment of DIs took place (although the third assessment of hearing interpreters took place that year). His first experience with interpreting was at the age of 6, when a Deaf friend stayed at his house, and Senan relayed to his friend what was being said. Later, he interpreted between his hearing relatives and his Deaf brother. He also relayed for teachers and supervisors in the dormitories, as did many other students. His first official interpreting assignment was in...