Achieving Successful Partnerships: Deaf Professionals and Designated Interpreters

Abstract

The assumption in most of the literature on interpretation is that the deaf person in the interpreted interaction is a subordinate or a consumer of professional services. There are currently more deaf professionals in power positions than at any other time in history, and thus, a greater need for interpreting services to meet the needs of deaf professionals and their non-deaf colleagues and clients. This book is the first to address this phenomenon head on. Interpreters and deaf professionals may have outdated assumptions about their relationships, so this volume critically examines these relationships and reveals current ‘‘best practices.’’ These partnerships have the potential to meet the needs of both the deaf professional and the interpreter, which would be stifled under a more rigid view of interpreting. Open communication is needed between both parties, with a commitment to the demands of the professional’s field and a shared understanding of when to be flexible or not in their respective roles. Twenty-five deaf professionals and designated interpreters contributed to this 13-chapter volume and provide a detailed, insightful look into the interpreter-mediated world of deaf professionals who are doctors, academics, attorneys, CEOs, therapists, artists, filmmakers, and information technology professionals. These partnerships are explored from both a theoretical and a practical view, which is a real strength of the volume. The first seven chapters address a myriad of issues: (1) trust and commitment that is needed for a successful partnership, while melding the interpreting and professional’s fields to achieve the professional’s goals; (2) teamwork with a designated interpreter and a nondesignated interpreter when giving a presentation; (3) how deaf professionals and designated interpreters can move beyond certain attitudes, behaviors, and stereotypes; (4) the importance and underlying goals of work-related social events that are not as ‘‘casual’’ as many may assume; (5) gender differences and an interpreter’s decisions regarding powerful/powerless language; (6) interpreter function in academia given the research, teaching, and service duties of deaf academics; and (7) dual interpreter roles, working with a deaf attorney, and the role of the deaf professional and human resources in staff interpreter decisions. The final six chapters focus on working relationships between designated interpreters and a deaf artist, doctor, CEO, therapist, filmmaker, and IT professional. Keen insight is provided into the intricacies of these relationships and expands our current view of interpreting services. These teams must work closely, which brings up questions of role, knowledge, decision making, boundaries, protocol, support, trust, commitment, judgment, and communication.