Educational Sign Language Interpreter Challenges

Hello everyone! My name is Lillah Harris. I'm the owner of LAF Sign Language Solutions. I wanted to speak to you today about some of the challenges that interpreters may face when they work independently in your school district or when they work in smaller communities.

In preparing to speak about this I reached out to some of my peers. They are educational interpreters from different sized school districts in different parts of the country and this is the question that I asked them,

"What challenges are you having and providing interpreting services for your deaf and hard of hearing students?".

The responses that I received from these interpreters were very eye-opening to me and I wanted to take the time to read some of them to you today.

One interpreter wrote, "My district tries to hire substitute interpreters when I'm out, but sometimes the kids just go without. There are only two certified interpreters in my district and during Covid outbreaks the students mostly just go without interpreting services." Another interpreter from a larger school district wrote, "I am currently the only interpreter in school. For many years, I was paired with two different students with vastly different needs who were forced together because I was the only interpreter. I never missed any work, as I knew my students would not have the accommodations they needed if I was not there. A healthy work-life balance is still something that I struggle with because of this." And lastly, another interpreter wrote, "I am the only interpreter in our county. There are several deaf students in our region, but only one is able to be served by an interpreter because they all attend different schools. I provide interpreting for parent-teacher conferences if my schedule allows, but there are no other events, including school board meetings that supply interpreters. I'm also expected to interpret extracurricular events, but prep time and breaks seldom happen. Several counties tangent to mine are also suffering in the same situation."

Wow! Very eye-opening! And I wanted to express my appreciation to these interpreters for sharing their experiences with me and allowing me to share them with you, because it's evident that interpreters in smaller districts, or interpreters who are working independently are facing many challenges. So, I would love to hear from you all whether you are district administrators parents of deaf students interpreters teachers. I'd like to know what challenges are you facing in your school district. Do you have any questions about providing interpreting services for your deaf and hard of hearing students?

Please feel free to reach out to me at my email which I will post below [Lharris@lafsls.com], or through our website lafsls.com. I really look forward to discussing these issues more with you and also working together to come up with some solutions. Thank you so much and I hope you have a great day