Facing social, emotional and technological challenges in the virtual interpreting classroom

Abstract

During the first waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, there was an observable increase in social and political attention paid to gender-based violence in our national context. This, in turn, has highlighted the important role of the Austrian Violence Protection Centres, also revealing the need to facilitate easier access to these services for non-German speaking clients through interpreters. To find ways to mirror close-to-life situations in our interpreting classes that reflect current technological developments, acute societal issues and complex institutional contexts, we developed a research-led semi-structured role-play concept, with the goal of preparing students for technical, ethical and emotional challenges pertaining to remote interpreting in sensitive contexts. To validate the effectiveness of the role-play, we used two simulations of interpreter-mediated online counselling sessions and conducted post-task interviews with involved students acting as interpreters.