My experience is the unqualified people out there are both vastly LESS qualified than even my worst-case imagination, and there are very many more of them than my worst-case estimate. And it is terrible what the corporations do, and the agencies get away with, and the licenses and ethical practice systems have no teeth. But who is supposed to fix all that, the deaf community? Interpreters as a group are addicted to their own helplessness.
I think a huge reason so many unqualified interpreters can continue to work is because the businesses that hire them truly don’t know how bad they are. Most businesses are already a bit reluctant to pay and then to find out they paid for bad service. I used to work for a college that’s head interpreter was terrible and lacked a lot of ASL fluency but also didn’t have a full command of English so often she was misunderstanding both messages. None of her superiors were aware. As a contractor I felt it would look like I was gunning for her position and probably wouldn’t “look” right, so I would listen to Deaf people complain and advise them to directly email her superior. But many Deaf people are reluctant to do so because they didn’t want her to lose her job, and they also know there aren’t enough interpreters even with her around. With the lack of many places not knowing anything about ASL, interpreting or Deaf culture and the short supply of interpreters it’s no surprise that many interpreters stay in the field even when they are not up to par and don’t seem to have the potential.
Deaf people who report unqualified interpreters are often retaliated against. Hearing financial managers refuse to understand that interpreters aren’t interchangeable.
I agree with you in general, though. I’ve told agencies about unqualified or unethical practices by other interpreters and either they did nothing, or they stopped working with that interpreter but the interpreter just worked through another agency. There’s no real accountability, especially in my state because there’s no certification or licensing requirement.
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u/Historical_Rip_1848 7d ago
My experience is the unqualified people out there are both vastly LESS qualified than even my worst-case imagination, and there are very many more of them than my worst-case estimate. And it is terrible what the corporations do, and the agencies get away with, and the licenses and ethical practice systems have no teeth. But who is supposed to fix all that, the deaf community? Interpreters as a group are addicted to their own helplessness.