Era of Virtual Interpretation

Thanks to Lockdown for helping us to think about alternatives and making us more self-reliant and productive in this tough times. The whole world has changed, Business has drastically come down. People are thinking about alternatives to sustain their work, business etc.

Life of an Interpreter was good in pre-lockdown era. An interpreter's job is to travel to different places and facilitate the interpretation esp during training, conferences, seminars, workshops etc. He/She may have to travel to different locations, meet different people, do interpretation by interacting with deaf. In terms of Seminars and Trainings, an Interpreter could connect easily with the deaf audience and he/she could make them understand the topic once the connect happens. The speaker is also aware that there is interpretation happening in parallel. In most of these cases, even the speech or training is well structured, and it becomes easy for an interpreter to facilitate the session. Also you can have Q&A from the audience which helps deaf audience to understand better.

Challenges in Virtual Interpretation

As I had discussed about alternatives, with this Lock-down there are lots of online training, free webinars for PwDs. In terms of Webinars esp with deaf audience, Virtual Interpretation is picking up now a days. Though it has opened up new opportunities for the Interpreters wherein they can facilitate the session from their home itself but it also has some challenges.

• Getting to know the speaker virtually would be a challenge. The initial conversations with speaker actually helps a lot in interpretation.
• Difficult to get engage with all the participants during virtual Interpretation, as you wouldn't have made any connect with them initially.
• If connected from mobile, visibility of all the participants would also be a problem with a small screen
• Words wont be much clear if there is a connection issue and we don't have a flexibility to check with speaker again. Most of the time, Interpreter either miscommunicates something which even he/she is not clear.
• Audience may miss out few important points, if they get disconnected.
• There would be a delay in Signs if there is a network issue. Audience may get confused if the signs are not syncing with the speech.

Tips to Improve Virtual Interpretation in-case of Inclusive Webinars esp with Deaf Participants

• A brief summary of the subject to be shared with Interpreter if possible so that Interpreter becomes aware of the subject.
• It would be great if Interpreter is aware of any specific Jargon, Abbreviations which would be used by the Speaker just to avoid Miscommunication. Even the pronunciation wont be much clear, if there is a network issue.
• Well structured speech so that speaker knows objective of the session.
• Initial level of preparation with the speaker to check the pace and to set the context, either on the same day or a day before the webinar.
• Host to share the information to all deaf participants regarding the availability of Interpreter and ensuring the participants on the etiquettes of Webinar
• Host to assign 10 mins for the deaf audience to ask questions at the end.
• Advising the speaker on usage of too much of Idioms and Phrases as interpretation would consume time because Interpreter has to sign the phrase as well as the meaning.
• Suggesting a slide either from a speaker or from the host for a brief summary of the session at the end. This would help all kind of participants.
• Usage of visual cues for better understanding as most of the deafs are visual learners.
• Interpreter to check the background noise, movement(avoid any distractions), ensure the connectivity is perfect and be ready with alternatives. If some issue happens with Wifi net, immediately login from Mobile with Data Connection. I do the same most of the times.
• Have a proper headset and check the quality of the sound. Remember, your entire interpretation depends on this sound quality
• Ensure that the platform has closed captions if possible OR requesting participants to use Google Transcribe app close to the speaker to get the text.
• Interpreters to follow basic etiquette, the only challenge would be to sit and facilitate the session which most of the interpreters are not comfortable with.

This Virtual Interpretation is here to stay for long time but it has also given us the opportunity to reach out to maximum beneficiaries through a single screen.

Happy Interpretation