The argument revolved around the question of whether this woman was a fake interpreter, as stated in many headlines reporting the story, or merely a bad interpreter, unqualified for the job and in over her head. While some insisted that she was a fake interpreter with a criminal record for stealing funds designated for children with disabilities, I maintained that it seemed implausible that she could benefit—financially or otherwise—from posing as an interpreter, for which she would not be paid. Some suggested her goal was to gain clout and recognition for interpreting at such a public and important event, but I maintained that she would inevitably be outed as incompetent, so how could her taking a role she could not proficiently fulfill would be to her advantage?

Some comments stated that it did not matter whether she was a fake interpreter or a bad interpreter, because the result was the same: she denied communication access to Deaf viewers and her actions were wrong, and possibly criminal.

While I certainly agree that the result is the same, whether she was a fake interpreter or a bad interpreter does in fact matter, because the causes of the infraction are different, as are the remedies.

Fake interpreters indicate a security problem. Case in point: Thamsanqa Jamtjie, the man who claimed to be an interpreter at Nelson Mandela‘s funeral in South Africa. He should never have been allowed on the stage with world leaders. Not only were Deaf attendees denied full access to the program, the safety of many heads of state was compromised. The solution here is more extensive background checks and checkpoints for those who wish to gain entry to the event.

I believe a greater threat to communication access and the integrity of our profession is the bad interpreter. In states without licensure, anyone can print up business cards stating that he is an interpreter, and agencies with lax hiring procedures and no skilled screeners on staff will hire these people, sending them into the community to do untold damage. Bad interpreters do not consider if they have the requisite skills or knowledge base for a given assignment. They do not have a commitment to the Deaf or interpreting communities, and they rely on the fact that many agencies and hiring institutions cannot evaluate their skills (or the lack there of). Agencies that do not solicit feedback from their consumers, and workplaces that do not ask their Deaf employees for their interpreter preferences, create opportunities for bad interpreters to continue working.

Fake interpreters seek to defraud the public. Bad interpreters seek to earn a living with minimal training and no commitment to skill development. But bad interpreters get work, and consumers suffer the consequences. They cannot be weeded out with background checks and fingerprinting.

Simply requiring certification is not a solution. Pre-certified interpreters are qualified to work in some settings—it’s necessary to their preparation for certification that they work for real-world assignments, albeit with the supports and preparation necessary for them to succeed. In addition, certified interpreters are not qualified for every job, and it’s the duty of each individual professional, and those who hire us, to gauge one’s competence for any individual assignment.

Lastly, bad interpreters can get better. Fake interpreters cannot. I have been a bad interpreter. I still have days when I’m unexpectedly in over my head. Perhaps it’s our duty as a profession to reach out to the bad interpreters with empathy, to draw them in rather than shun them, and help them become good, ethical, qualified colleagues.

The post The Imposter Interpreter: How Should the Profession Respond? appeared first on Signtalk Foundation.

How, then, to reconcile both points of view? Deaf people need interpreters to become more highly skilled.   Deaf professionals need interpreters capable of voicing their presentations at professional conferences; Deaf diplomats need interpreters able to interpret conversations with foreign heads of state; Deaf concert goers need interpreters willing to stand on stage at Madison Square Garden and interpret rap lyrics. None of these jobs is easy, and no interpreter graduates from her ITP ready to take them on. The highly trained interpreters who provide this specialized work build their skills over time, by taking increasingly difficult and high-pressure assignments. And it’s safe to say that on the way they occasionally failed to keep up with the speaker, or understand the content, or grasp the protocol expected in highly formal situations.

Doing one type of job exclusively will lead to an atrophy of your skills and limit your ability to explore new realms of interpreting. Yet, accepting work well above your abilities is not only a recipe for failure and a disservice to your consumers, it is also prohibited by the RID/NAD Code of Professional Conduct. Consider, then, taking jobs that challenge you in only one of the many variables involved. Maybe you’re asked to interpret a PhD-level philosophy class for a Deaf student. You have never interpreted such complex academic information before, but you know the Deaf student and understand his signing, you know your team and trust her skills, and you are assured the agency will provide you with the syllabus and other materials to help you prepare. You may be nervous about the academic language and complicated content you will face, but every other variable is in place to provide a safety net if you become overwhelmed. The added benefit that you can prepare before each class and become familiar with vocabulary and names that may come up makes this a good job to stretch your skills.

You’re asked to interpret for a Deaf presenter lecturing at a public event. You’ve voiced for Deaf presenters before, but never to a full auditorium using a microphone. As it may be quite possible that you will not be able to stop the presenter if you get lost, one compensatory strategy is already out the window. Possible solutions? Ask the presenter to meet with you beforehand to practice, and to send you a copy of the presentation early enough for you to review it and to research how to pronounce technical words with which you may not be familiar. Also, make every effort to secure a team whom you know to be a strong voicer, which will compensate for not being able to stop the speaker if you miss a word or phrase.

There are many ways to address the risk of interpreting new content, or for a new person, or in a new setting that would allow you enough of a safety net to comply with the CPC. There are, however, some reasons interpreters accept challenging jobs that do not justify the risk. One reason is the money. Do not take a difficult job because the money is just too good to pass up. If you don’t feel you will have the back up you need and the appropriate supports in place to help you succeed, no amount of money is worth failing your consumers. Likewise, if the job does not pay at all, don’t make the mistake of thinking, “It’s a volunteer job, so it’s okay if I mess it up. Having me is still better than having no interpreter at all.” Every consumer deserves a qualified interpreter, regardless of how much the job pays.

High profile jobs are always tempting. But don’t be enticed by a job just because it is high profile. Yes, it would be cool to interpret on stage or on TV for a famous actor, politician or well-known member of the Deaf community, but jobs with high visibility also invite public criticism. Remember that the job does not end with the presentation; your performance may end up on someone’s cell phone or video and go viral, leading to widespread comments and critiques.   In addition, technical issues like lighting and staging may make it impossible to follow a script, stop the speaker or even see your team for a feed. Do not take a risk when several of your supports are unavailable.

This may seem counterintuitive, but don’t take a challenging job simply because you like the consumer, or your team. Liking the people you work with is a definite plus and can make a difficult job easier, but merely liking the consumer as an individual doesn’t mean you’re the best interpreter for her dissertation defense, or court appearance. You may get along well with certain interpreters, but if they don’t have the requisite skills for a specific job, you are missing a key variable that can help you successfully provide access. It’s more important to work with someone who has the technical vocabulary required, than to work with someone you enjoy hanging out with.

Of course, even the most prepared interpreter can get caught off guard. Once, I stated clearly to the institution hiring me that my accepting the voicing job was contingent upon getting the Deaf presenter’s PowerPoint well in advance of the event. After asking for it two week prior, one week prior, and then two days prior, the presenter still refused to send me a copy of her presentation. On another voicing assignment for a public event, the presenter promised to meet with my team two hours before the presentation. He ended up giving us less than a half hour of his time, time we also needed to spend reading through his slides for the first time.

You cannot predict everything that can go wrong with an assignment — a teacher with a strong accent; a doctor who refuses to speak directly to his Deaf patient; a Deaf consumer with limited vision. We can, however, prepare as much as possible, trust our training and our team, and learn from each catastrophic or less than perfect experience. And by honestly assessing our performance, we learn to differentiate between a challenge worth taking and a risk that should be avoided.

The post Challenge or Risk: How to Determine If an Interpreting Job is Over Your Head appeared first on Signtalk Foundation.

The Deaf students in my high school went on an end of the year field trip and I joined them as the interpreter.  The students wanted a group picture in front of the museum that included me.  Can I be in a group picture with the kids, on the kids’ phones? I don’t know how they will use the picture.  (I also want a picture with the kids and me because I’ve been working with them all year and I’m fond of them.) What should I do?

Signed,

I Promise Not to Instagram the Picture

Dear Not Instagramming,

Cameras are ubiquitous these days. It’s impossible to avoid getting shot on camera, intentionally or not. (Who knows how many shots I’ve photo-bombed.) However, this group shot commemorates an important event and the end of a school year.

Humanity is allowed, though confidentiality must be in the forefront of your mind. Not only are you on an interpreting job, you’re on a job with minors.  Take your cue from the teachers and other members of the educational team. Teachers are permitted to be included in group pictures with their students.  So, you are, too.       Yet, you have some restraints.

• Do not post the picture on any personal social media site, as per the NYC DOE social media policy.  This isn’t even an ethical issue, it’s a legal one: “The posting or disclosure of personally identifiable student information or confidential information via personal social media sites, in violation of Chancellor’s Regulations, is prohibited.” (NYC Department of Education Social Media Guidelines.)
• Additionally, if a student posts the picture on their personal site, do not tag yourself in the photo. You shouldn’t be following student on social media, anyhow.
• A teacher may post the group picture to an appropriate school social media site if each of the students has signed a written waiver and you’ve given oral permission.  Still, do not tag yourself.
• Do not take pictures with individual students.
• If you snap a couple of selfies–sans students–it would be prudent to resist posting them to social media.  Confidentiality breaches turn up in unsuspecting ways.  If you must post the selfie of you in front of the Hamilton box office, at least wait a few days after the event.

Of course, if you feel more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it, offer to take the group shot. In most likelihood,  the students will be so focused on their own appearances that they won’t realize you’re not in the picture.

The post Ethics: May I be Included in a Group Photo with my Students? appeared first on Signtalk Foundation.

Ethical dilemmas. We are faced with them everyday. Interpreters are very often put into the position of Constant-Ethical-Dilemma-Decision-Maker or CEDDM for short – yes, we need another acronym! There are many times when the “right” decision feels wrong and the “wrong” decision feels right.  The decisions that interpreters make can have significant impact on the outcome of a meeting, shift the cultural platform and cultivate or destroy relationships.

So how do interpreters handle these scenarios? Naturally we have the RID Code of Professional Conduct to refer to. However, the CPC is merely a guideline for parameters of professional behavior, not a rule book to abide by. So interpreters need other guidance. This guidance is often difficult to seek out given the parameters of confidentiality. However, with experience, an interpreter begins to realize that there are ways to gain insight in safe and neutral ways.

As a working professional, any interpreter should be a member of the national organization representing his/her field and should be a member of the local chapter of interpreters. Through these memberships an interpreter will remain abreast on current trends in the field and have access to colleagues who may be more seasoned and who can act as confidential mentors. These mentorships often happen organically through conversations among professionals.

But perhaps a larger platform is needed, one to put real, hard, what-in-the-world-should-I-have done types of issues out there for a bigger group to hear and chew on. To address this issue SignTalk is offering a platform to discuss these issues. So we are asking you to submit some real life scenarios that were perplexing or challenging for you. These situations can be from you as a receiver of interpreting services or from the interpreting side of things.

So let’s ask the “tough” questions, the “oohh, ouch” questions, the “I’m not so sure of the answer” questions. Send your scenarios/dilemmas to smorrow@signtalk.org and we will walk through these scenarios together with perspective from representatives from the deaf and interpreting communities.  

Let’s grow our awareness together – with each other – through community.

Susie

The post When Sometimes Wrong is Right & Right is Wrong appeared first on Signtalk Foundation.