Brokering understanding: Canadian deaf interpreters’ role and practice

ABSTRACT

This article reports findings from semi-structured interviews with twelve Canadian deaf interpreter (DI) participants as part of a three-year study of language ideologies related to DIs. DIs are professional or amateur sign language interpreters and translators who are deaf and who may often but not always work as part of a team with hearing interpreters. When working with a hearing interpreter who uses the same national sign language, the DI’s role is often seen as meeting the needs of deaf clients who are viewed as lacking proficiency in a named language and/or who are viewed as monolingual in a named national sign language. This reflects normative language ideologies and conceptions of interpreting and translation. DI participants described their role in terms of their enhanced powers of understanding that elicited greater information from other deaf individuals than was apparent to a hearing interpreter. In addition, DI participants characterized their work as primarily translation, in a manner that accords with translation as the creation of meaning and as translanguaging that extends beyond named languages and deploys the individual’s full semiotic repertoire.

KEYWORDS:

• Deaf interpreters
• American Sign Language
• understanding
• intralingual interpreting
• translanguaging

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant.

Notes on contributors

Kristin Snoddon

Kristin Snoddon, PhD is Associate Professor with the School of Early Childhood Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. Her research and professional experience include collaborative work with deaf communities in developing sign language and early literacy programming for young deaf children and their parents. Additionally, she analyzes policy issues related to inclusive education, sign language rights, and acquisition planning for ASL. Her current research focuses on sign language ideologies and ideologies of understanding related to deaf interpreters.