Using Video Interpreters to Combat Interpreter Shortage - Part One

By Cheryl Heppner, 8/30/07

Editor: This workshop was presented at the 2007 TDI Conference by
Janet Bailey and Jana Owen of Sign Language Associates. It addresses the very important topic of how to deal with the ongoing interpreter shortage. This is part one of three parts.

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Part Two

Part Three

Janet Bailey has been a certified interpreter for over 30 years. She has served twice as President of the national Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). Her interpreting specialties are performing arts and business. Jana Owen has been involved in interpreting work for over 25 years. Sign Language Associates is the nation's oldest and largest private interpreting firm. has been involved in Video Relay Service and Video Remote Interpreting for over 10 years.

Janet Bailey:
In 1956 AT&T had a vision about a picture phone. At a conference in Washington, DC AT&T had a booth with a long table. At one end was a picture phone. At the other was a camera. Deaf people were fascinated by it. They would sign at one end and then run down to the other to see their signing arrive at the other end. This experience gave Janet her first vision for a call center, with interpreters sitting in front of something and interpreting.

The cost of making this happen was too high for a long time. Microsoft NetMeeting brought the possibility a little closer. Then Texas started the first trials for video relay service.

In 1996, SLA worked with the Department of Education. Vic Galloway said "You have to do this; video conferencing will change the world." So Sign Language Associates (SLA) jumped in. Then Vic never once used video remote interpreting (VRI). The deaf community wasn't really ready, and the service was very expensive. Sadly, Sweden beat us to making it widely available.

By 2000, the technology was ready but interpreters weren't sure they wanted to be part of VRI. Two years later they were willing to test it. They realized they didn't have to drive all over the place and the women didn't have to wear heels all the time. The video picture was good and the pay was higher. They could work with other interpreters instead of having one interpreter go here and another there. Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) conferences were the only place they generally saw each other.

In 2006, the RID had a committee to write a paper about video interpreting. An effort was made to find out how many interpreters were really working in this field. They came up with 3,000. Today, it's anyone's guess, and all the video relay providers are looking to hire more interpreters.

Q: Aren't there 2,500 certified interpreters in the U.S.?
Jana Owen: RID membership is roughly 2,500. People working in schools may not be joining, so it is hard to count them.
Janet Bailey: Certified by who is the question. NAD certified interpreters are part of the RID count. Somebody could say the interpreter is certified , but it could be by another body.
Jana Owen: Many states have licensure or other testing systems.

Q: Do VRS interpreters have to be certified or not?
Janet Bailey: It depends on the companies that provide interpreting, and what rules they want to impose. The Federal Communications Commission regulations don't require it. They just say the interpreter must be qualified, the same language as the ADA. When the ADA was before Congress, there were many public hearings and I went to speak as President of RID to try to convince them to include certification. At that time we had 5,000 members. Obviously they couldn't put into national law that certification is required when there weren't enough certified interpreters to meet the demand.

Comment: I've heard that many video interpreters can't do the job. They are misunderstanding and making mistakes.
Janet Bailey: That is true, but today we are here to talk about quantity more than quality, and what we are going to do about that. We recognize quality is an issue.

Janet Bailey:
I have been in this field a long time. I have never seen us have too many interpreters. Since I set up SLA 25 years ago, we never had to market because we always had more calls for interpreters than we could fill. That is a wonderful position for a business to be in. It's now gotten worse because of video relay services (VRS).

But there was also a time when there was a huge cry for educational interpreters. Schools were not paying very well so interpreters didn't leave the community to rush to the schools. It was a different problem.

Jana Owen:
Those educational settings weren't demanding quality in their interpreters. Now interpreters are starting to learn about VRS and begin working for the providers. It's been hard to provide similar working conditions such as salary level and regular hours for other assignments. Interpreters like to get long hours of work. A one-hour doctors' appointment is becoming more difficult to fill.

Janet Bailey:
When interpreting first began, people would ask for a favorite interpreter. In any town there are usually one, two or three people you would want to interpret if something big happens, like a visit from the President of the United States. Those interpreters always tended to be in the front lines. When they go, someone else replacing them may not have the experience because they were never allowed to get the experience. Now when the favorites leave, they step up and say "I'm ready; I am the second team, but I am ready." It was not the death of interpreting. Interpreters who never had the opportunity to be on the front line now have it.

Part Two

Part Three

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