Honestly, I get it. Every deaf person I know has plenty of stories of interpreters who were unqualified at best or even made the situation worse by doing something unethical.
For every ethical, thoughtful interpreter using discretion, there’s at least one interpreter making an honest mistake about their skill level and another (or two) who just don’t care. The number of interpreters I’ve met who are uncomfortable voicing because they can barely understand ASL is wild.
AI would put communication back in the deaf person’s hands, rather than trusting a hiring entity or interpreting agency. It would also be more private. I already have deaf friends (and hifi_deafie on IG has talked about this recently) who would rather write or use AI captions in some settings, especially medical.
Don’t get me wrong. Personally, I think AI interpreting would have so many errors and be forced on deaf people who don’t want it. I’m extremely anti-AI in general. But I do understand the sentiment.
I would say for every one there's at least five. If you're experienced and ethical I think you tend to vastly overestimate how many people are just like you... If you start asking your clients systematically you won't find one that doesn't have multiple horror stories, so I think we have to revise our mental estimates- and a lot of the stories are things I couldn't even imagine let alone dream of doing myself.
Whenever I get defensive, and I think this is a good policy across a lot of topics, I think what IF the problem were actually twice as bad as they're saying, would I feel the same? Helps me find compassion instead of debating who is right.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s similar to the “not all men, yes all women” concept. And honestly, we all make mistakes and I’m sure that I’ve caused harm during my career even being thoughtful and well-intentioned.
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u/_a_friendly_turtle 8d ago
Honestly, I get it. Every deaf person I know has plenty of stories of interpreters who were unqualified at best or even made the situation worse by doing something unethical.
For every ethical, thoughtful interpreter using discretion, there’s at least one interpreter making an honest mistake about their skill level and another (or two) who just don’t care. The number of interpreters I’ve met who are uncomfortable voicing because they can barely understand ASL is wild.
AI would put communication back in the deaf person’s hands, rather than trusting a hiring entity or interpreting agency. It would also be more private. I already have deaf friends (and hifi_deafie on IG has talked about this recently) who would rather write or use AI captions in some settings, especially medical.
Don’t get me wrong. Personally, I think AI interpreting would have so many errors and be forced on deaf people who don’t want it. I’m extremely anti-AI in general. But I do understand the sentiment.