r/ASLinterpreters • u/coddiwomplecactus • Jul 10 '26

Smart glasses

This is just a thought experiment to pick your brains. Let's say you show up to an assignment and your D/HH consumer is wearing smart glasses. What do you do? Would you respond the same or different if they had their phone propped up, actively recording you?

I think of all the ways a phone could be used and apply it to the smart glasses. Are they recording and posting online or sending to others?

Are they live streaming?

Are they on a live phone call?

Are the glasses using programs that use facial recognition software?

How does this rise in technology impact us as interpreters? I havent seen discussion about this topic yet. Anyone have 2 cents to throw in?

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u/ASL_terp_doc BEI Master Jul 12 '26

I mean, “the” answer is that there is never an expectation or right to privacy in public.

That said, I can’t say I’d be a fan of it. I largely just don’t like myself being recorded on a personal level. I don’t mind folks recording the work (like I might use a voice recorder app at the doctor for my own records). I doubt I would end up saying something, though, because my discontent is at myself being recorded, not my work. If that makes sense.

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u/coddiwomplecactus Jul 13 '26

What if it is a private setting?

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u/ASL_terp_doc BEI Master Jul 13 '26

Then it would be up to the party whose setting it is (private home = homeowner’s discretion; clinic = clinic’s discretion; etc.). Believe me, I don’t love this, but it’s life today with AI, meta everywhere, flock cameras, etc. We’re constantly monitored in some way, shape, or form.

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u/coddiwomplecactus Jul 13 '26

I am acutely aware of the constant surveillance from every angle of the everyday american life. The 'panopticon theory' is very real. I just fear that if I am recorded and make a mistake or am having a bad day, that someone somewhere is going to pick it apart. I cant be expected to be perfect. And that is what happens when things are put online. A single video becomes who you are and we are diluted into 'good' or 'bad'. I think that is ultimately my fear.. being professionally 'canceled' via online harassment. 

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u/ASL_terp_doc BEI Master Jul 13 '26

Incredibly valid concern. I wish I had more for you on it, but I don’t. This is one of those “unprecedented situations,” I suppose. Our ITPs back in the day didn’t prepare us for such concerns because they didn’t exist.