Abstract
AbstractDisabled people have achieved more legal recognition from nation‐states and societies because of advocacy and institutional efforts such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is a starting, not an end, point: How does legal recognition trickle down (or not) or become distributed to those who work with disabled people? This article examines this question by ethnographically attending to the experiences of two sign language interpreters in Bangalore, India, and in Hà Nội, Vietnam. While both countries recognize deaf peoples’ rights, there is limited institutional or financial recognition of interpreters. Interpreters’ daily lives and individual projects of recognition are shaped by broader socio‐political contexts. The article argues that in the absence of legal recognition, recognition is an interpersonal process that is both produced by and produces forms of relationship and responsibility. How do interpreters seek and receive recognition from the state as well as deaf people, hearing colleagues, and society at large? Attending to recognition projects highlights how deaf people and interpreters are bound together in mutual systems of precarious interdependence. Recognition is negotiated across multiple scales and influences individuals’ life projects and livelihoods. [recognition, disability, deafness, sign language, interpreting]
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