Using Video Interpreters to Combat Interpreter Shortage - Part Three

By Cheryl Heppner

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 three of three parts.

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Part One

Part Two

Q: Is your VRI locally-based?
Janet Bailey: SLA has clients all over the United States.

Q: How do you deal with regional variations in sign language?
Janet Bailey: It has been a challenge. In the early days, Jana and I went to Minnesota and watched an interpreter handle a call from a woman in the Washington, DC area. The interpreter was struggling with the name of the town and we told her what it was. VRS interpreters are becoming more flexible and learning to handle this. In VRI it is different. You can ask that the biology book be sent to you before the class so you are familiar with what might be covered. When you are interpreting a VRS call you have no information.

Q:Do you use VRI in the medical arena, and if so what advance preparation do you have?
Janet Bailey: If you are bleeding in the emergency room, I will not ask you a bunch of questions, but if you are waiting for an appointment I would ask for your history so I could be ready. We can do this with VRI, but not VRS.

Jana Owen:
We run into some technical barriers, especially security-related with firewalls. We haven't always found easy solutions but they are coming. Things that were impossible two years ago are solved. IT people are more familiar with video. Often when we do hospital or university work, IT people have started to learn some things on their own.

Janet Bailey:
In the medical setting, we have to explain who we are and why we are there. I've had to explain to a nurse that she needs to move because I can't see the deaf person. One nurse said to me, "but she's not dressed!"

Jana Owen:
The camera and microphone placement are particularly important in business meetings and medical settings. An interpreter can only see what the camera is showing, so that may mean missing out on a lot of information. If you are an interpreter onsite, you can gauge the mood or see the supervisor pointing to a chart when saying "notice column two".

Janet Bailey:
We know that technology will give us multiscreen soon, so we can see the person and listen and see the PowerPoint.

Jana Owen:
Another tool is to use instant messaging (IM) at the same time. A student could let us know if we missed something they fingerspelled. Turn taking has always been a challenge face to face and a video interpreter also needs those skills when a deaf person wants to make a comment or ask a question. It can be strange for the interruption to come from this voice in a box instead of the person in the room.

Sometimes using a remote interpreter is not the right choice. The interpreter has to have a sense of the situation and be able to make a decision and have something happen. We've played with different approaches. Suppose a university can only get one interpreter but needs two. We've tried having an interpreter on site teaming with an interpreter on remote. It worked well in some cases, in others it didn't.

Janet Bailey:
A large conference with a prescripted speech would be perfect for VRI because you don't need to see all the people in the audience. I could be in Cleveland and interpret for an audience in San Francisco. The trouble is that hotels aren't yet set up for this.

An educational interpreter may not be the best performing arts interpreter. For the spring play in the school auditorium you could have nationally skilled, certified professional performing arts interpreters through VRI. In the future it may be able to give deaf people the best interpreters for whatever they are doing.

We are stuck without a point of contact if something goes wrong with VRI. We need the cell number of the person in the room or contact for the IT person. When something happens, everyone tends to look at the interpreter. "What is wrong?" "I don't know, I can interpret."

We have learned a lot of things. In the education setting, baseball hats are a problem and you may not see a face at all. Lighting is important in some of these settings. But we also had to honor the fact that a college kid didn't want to pay attention.

One class in California neded an interpreter who knew Hebrew. We had someone on staff. It was a perfect use for VRI.

Jana Owen:
Sometimes a teacher might break a class into small groups for discussion and you get a small group but if the video intepreter voices, that voice will broadcast to the whole room.

We have learned a lot about applying remote interpreting to medical situations, appointments and emergencies. The interpreter and consumer both need judgment and the opportunity to convey their opinion of whether this communication will be effective.

Janet Bailey:
We have experienced bad situations with hospitals and medical groups where people have come in to talk with them about VRI equipment. We sell interpreting. It really needs to get back to that because so many of the people getting into the business know the equipment but don't know and understand things like the need for a qualified interpreter.

Jana Owen:
Getting into the legal area with VRI is still under discussion. We have to find what comfort zones are and what areas might or might not be appropriate. There are pros and cons. Think of middle-of-the-night bond hearings where the interpreter would have to drive over. If I am interpreting in the courtroom, I get to see the file and read through it for a sense of what might be involved. I would want that same thing for VRI.

Janet Bailey:
Another huge challenge is reciprocity. We got a call one time from a Northeastern state. The ADA and their local licensing law came into conflict. They had to provide the interpreter under the ADA for this person, but the state said we couldn't send someone because they didn't have a license in that state. So which law do you follow?

Jana Owen:
There are "on-calls" or "on-site" interpreters that we send to places for an entire day or some days of a week. That way the client doesn't have to call us for each appointment because the interpreter is there already. When the on-call or on-site interpreter is sitting in a room unneeded, it eats up a lot of interpreter time that could be used to fill other requests. We believe VRI will find a solution for that.

Janet Bailey:
If you had an interpreter in your pocket all day long, you would never misunderstand anything. You could be lost and go to the 7-Eleven to ask for directions knowing you'll have interpreting right there. It will happen. Today it is closer than ever. Everyone in the exhibit hall is talking about wireless. You will have an account you pay for your wireless coverage and an account for interpreting. Everyone will have an interpreter for whatever it is, when you are buying your boat or your house.

Part One

Part Two

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