Video Relay Service Interpreters: Intricacies of Sign Language Access

Chapter 1 - Toward a Sociology of Interpreting

1 Chapter 1 Toward a Sociology of Interpreting Sign language interpreting is about access. The simplicity of the statement , however, belies the actual work that goes into producing, facilitating , and providing access. Access occurs through people’s doings, both visible and invisible, both paid and unpaid. That is, access is the product of someone deciding to ask for an accommodation. It is the result of someone creating a line item for Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or an interpreter. Someone makes a call, someone schedules a service, someone makes a decision to accept or decline a particular assignment, and, if all goes well, someone shows up and provides access. The labor does not end there; more people must take up more work. Someone must accommodate the accommodation, by allowing the individual to set up and work in a place that lends itself to access. This can include allowing the interpreter to stand or sit in a place where the person needing the accommodation will be able to take advantage of it. And, of course, this does not include other invisible labor that goes into receiving an accommodation. While the interpreter is the one “providing” the access , making that access a reality is really the aggregate product of many people’s efforts and doings. CONCEPTUALIZING WORk BROAdLy Traditionally, work has had a limited definition. We have understood work to be an activity that occurs in a particular place, for a set duration, and under the direction of others. The focus is also on the stated function of the work in relation to the larger system in which it occurs (e.g., the relationship of customer service to the bottom line). Furthermore, work has been restricted to that for which a person receives remuneration. Feminist scholars and others have pushed for a broader definition of work (Daniels 1987; D. Smith 1990b; DeVault 1991). This new definition encompasses a wide range of activities that are both visible and invisible labor, essential to the operation of society, and those activities that are 2 : chapter 1 both paid and unpaid (e.g., mothering). Within this materialist view of work we can explore work as the product of people’s activities, as well as the catalyst that drives people’s activities. Throughout this book, I use a Marxist-feminist understanding of work that recognizes both paid and unpaid work activities, focusing on the “labor processes” (Burawoy 1979), or the conscious, purposeful, learned activities that people perform with the intent that they will receive some benefit from them. These activities can include behaviors such as attending a company picnic in order to be seen as a team player, looking for a parking space close to the store to reduce the distance one has to walk, going through a drive-thru rather than cooking, or being nice to an interpreter coordinator in order to get called first for a job. EmOTIONAL LABOR One type of work is emotion work. “Emotional labor emphasizes the relational rather than the task-based aspect of work found primarily but not exclusively in the service economy” (Steinberg and Figart 1999, 9). Hochschild (1983), who introduced the concept of “emotion work,” and others have examined the issue from the perspective of the service provider . More contemporary scholarship has attempted to further define and expand the meaning of “caring labor” (Himmelweit 1999). “Emotional work is performed through face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact” (Steinberg and Figart 1999, 10), just like all of sign language interpreting ; therefore, we can discuss sign language interpreting as a form of emotional labor. Most individuals who engage the public as a part of their job are more than likely participating in emotion work, but people also do emotion work outside of employment situations. For example, rather than focus on the emotion work between service providers and service receivers, Cahill and Eggelston (1994) study the emotional labor that individuals with disabilities—in their study, users of wheelchairs—perform to spare themselves and “walkers” any awkward feelings. Schwartz (2006, 112) finds that deaf people as well engage in emotion work, a phenomenon he calls “letting it go”: For example, deaf people allow doctors to end appointments before answering all of their questions, because they sense the doctors getting impatient. Toward a Sociology of Interpreting : 3 One form of emotional labor is care work. Himmelweit (1999) suggests that the definition of “care [work] should be reserved for relationships in...