• National Consortium Projects
  • Mental Healthcare and Substance Abuse Interpreting
  • Marketing the Interpreting Profession
  • Deaf Interpreting
• Regional Center Activities

Deaf Interpreting

The NCIEC is working to investigate current practices in Deaf interpreting and Deaf interpreting education as a first step toward identifying effective practices in these areas. Major accomplishments of Year 1 were to compile a Deaf interpreting bibliography, to pilot a survey instrument to gather data on Deaf interpreters (DIs), to conduct interviews of Deaf interpreters and hearing interpreters who frequently work with Deaf interpreters, and to bring together a group of experts on Deaf interpreting for a forum looking at Critical Issues in Deaf interpreting. An outcome of this forum was to convene a National Partner Network of Deaf Interpreters to inform and carry out the work of the Consortium in this project area.

Now in Year 2, the DI partner network has laid out a plan to investigate current practice through a series of small focus groups and interviews to be held, one in each of the NCIEC regions. The plan also includes review of the Deaf interpreting bibliography compiled in Year 1, gathering together of data collected from previous surveys and interviews, and conducting a national survey based on the earlier pilot survey described above. Current and former practices in Deaf interpreting education will be identified and assessed for their effectiveness. A subset of the 2006 Critical Issues Forum participants presented the results of their work at the RID Conference, August 2007. Plans are underway to design and measure the effectiveness of a DI training module during 2008.

Ultimately, the goal is to identify effective practices in teaching Deaf interpreting, including curriculum and appropriate delivery methods to meet the educational needs of current and future Deaf interpreters.

Review Deaf Interpreting Bibliography with Annotations: A Working Document.

View ASL summaries of the Critical Issues in Deaf Interpreting presentations.

View the Deaf Interpreting PowerPoint presentation, RID 2007.