Sign-To-Text Interpreting (Was Interpreters as Typists)

[Isabelle Heyerick]

Hello Tom,

 

Interesting point you make about sign-to-text interpreting. 

For as far as I know that is unheard of in Belgium. Mostly it is either
sign language - spoken language (and vice versa) or spoken language to
text.

Can you provide me with examples of situations where sign
language-to-text interpreting is necessary or preferred?

 

Thank you in advance,

Isabelle Heyerick

 

Van: slling-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
[mailto:slling-l-bounces at majordomo.valenciacc.edu] Namens
twflynn at aol.com
Verzonden: maandag 25 februari 2008 6:09
Aan: slling-l at majordomo.valenciacc.edu
Onderwerp: [SLLING-L] Sign-To-Text Interpreting (Was Interpreters as
Typists)

 

I had a discussion on just this topic, about two years ago, with an
agency that has Deaf employees. 

The agency wanted me to provide ten or twelve workshops to help the Deaf
employees improve their written English. The agency has interpreters on
staff, so I tried to convince the agency to use the interpreters - let
the Deaf employees sign their texts, let the interpreters voice the text
onto audio tape, and let the secretaries transcribe the voicing onto
paper.

The agency no longer hires secretaries - each employee writes documents
on her/his own desktop computer.

So I recommended that the interpreter watch the signed text (in real
time) and transcribe it onto the Deaf employee's desktop computer. 

My thought is that the interpreter's job is to convert text from source
language to target language, but the target language doesn't necessarily
have to be produced with the voice. Converting from signed ASL to
written English is just as much within the purview of "interpreting" as
going from signed ASL to spoken English. Technically, it might be
defined more as "translating", or somewhere on a continuum between
translating and interpreting, but all of that is a moot point to a Deaf
individual who needs to transcribe a spoken language. And there is
probably more need for sign-to-text interpreting than most people
imagine - or there will be as more and more Deaf individuals take
mainstreamed jobs under the ADA (here in the US). 

Some caveats: 

1. The interpreter may want or need to use the consecutive mode of
interpreting for this kind of work. Typing is generally slower than
speaking. 

2. The interpreter ought not to be held responsible for formatting the
document - the Deaf employee should know the company/agency expectations
for that sort of thing.

3. The interpreter should be held responsible for correct syntax,
grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation. Anna Whitter Merithew
maintains that interpreters need to know both languages (source and
target) deeply; knowing the syntax, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and
punctuation is simply part of knowing the target language deeply.

Tom Flynn

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