Winter Webinar Wonderland

Make it your New Year’s resolution to catch up on some CPD.

We have 5 webinars over the day to pique your interest whilst you stay home and keep warm.

The details will be uploaded here as soon as we have them but there should be something to suit everyone.

• 10:15- Brett Best and Stacey Webb: Signal jamming in the SLI field.

This webinar explores the concepts of systems theory and signal jamming as they apply to the UK signed language interpreting (SLI) landscape. Signal jamming is a phenomenon whereby purchasers of interpreting services receive mixed signals about who is competent to provide a service, leading to mistrust and confusion creating a lessened incentive to seek out fully qualified practitioners. Signal jamming essentially throws a spanner into the works of an optimally functioning SLI system here in the UK. This webinar will give participants terminology to discuss this phenomenon as well as offering proposed solutions for the profession going forward.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to give 3 examples of signal jamming in the UK context

2. Participants will be able to name 3 components of the UK signed language interpreting system

3. Participants will be able to link the concepts of system theory and signal jamming to their own practice

• 11:30- Dionne Thomas: Interpreting in Business settings.

• 13:00- Gavin Lilley- International Sign

• 14:15- Dr Robyn Dean: Risky Business: Cortisol Dysregulation in Signed Language Interpreters

Abstract:

Do signed language interpreters have a high risk for negative health outcomes because of the nature of their work? The hormone “cortisol” rises and falls within each of us on a daily basis according to known patterns. But these patterns can be disrupted by stress. This disruption, or cortisol dysregulation can lead to significant negative health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and even cancer. It is already well-documented that signed language interpreters have a high incident of cumulative motion injuries (CMI). Traditionally, CMI studies presumed that injuries result from the biomechanics of signed languages; stress has rarely been considered a relevant factor. Prior studies we’ve conducted using self-report measures suggest that stress is indeed a major factor underlying interpreter occupational health risks. Our goal in this study was to gather cortisol pattern data to augment the self-report, psychological data we’ve relied on in the past.

We recruited approximately sixty-five signed language interpreters who provided saliva samples at four time-intervals over two consecutive days. While the findings did not indicate a pattern of dysregulation over the two-day period, there was an across-the-board finding of participant’s blunted cortisol awakening response (CAR). Blunted CAR has been correlated with both depression and burnout. Other quantitative data were also collected regarding self-report of stress, including: Effort-Reward Imbalance Scale (an occupational health risk measure); perceived Stress Scale; Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction at Work Scale Medical Outcomes Study Short Form. Some results of these measures will be included in the data reporting.

Bio :

Robyn K. Dean, CI/CT, PhD: Dr. Dean has been a qualified signed language interpreter for thirty years with particular service in the field of healthcare. Her scholarship in decision-making and ethics in community interpreting is recognized internationally. Dr. Dean has over twenty publications, all of which focus on theoretical and pedagogical frameworks used to advance the practice of community interpreters. She is currently a lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the US, where she is the lead instructor on the institute’s postgraduate degree in healthcare interpretation. Additionally, she consults on postgraduate degrees for signed language interpreters in Europe.

• 15:30- Centuries of Standing: A History of Platform Interpreting- Anne Leahy

Description:

This presentation documents selected milestones in the development of platform signed language interpreting (SLI), from the late 18th to early 20th centuries. The work of both hearing and deaf BSL interpreters will be covered; some American and French cases are also included. “Platform” is a term of art in the SLI field to indicate working with a larger audience, from some type of raised feature. It could have signed or spoken source and target texts, in various language combinations, e.g.,

​signed à spoken ​spoken à signed​signed àsigned

Archival research, supplemented with personal histories, situates subjects within their lives and times. My previous ASLI workshop described legal precedents prior to the formation of schools. The later practice of platform interpreting broadens historical analyses from deaf individuals toward settings more rooted in the service of signing Deaf communities. Examples to be given can be categorized as:  1) Churches   2) Professional   3) Community

Educational Objectives:

1) Identify milestones from 225 years of platform interpreting.

2) Question why SLI has been left out of histories within Deaf and Disability studies, and mainstream Translation and Interpreting studies.

3) Compare historical and contemporary practices of interpreting for larger audiences at the local, national, and international levels.

4) Adopt sound qualitative research practices, using primary source material and balanced literature (e.g., print vs. electronic, supporting vs. countering thehypothesis/argument).

Participation:

1) I present unusual information in a systematic (and well-tested) way, so I ask frequent prediction and comprehension questions to ensure the audience is grasping any specialized legal and historical contexts.

2) Immediate, open-ended synthesizing questions.

3) Invite questions from the audience during my remarks, or if necessary, create a “parking lot” of points to answer or clarify.

4) Encourage audience members with expertise in a particular subject to respond first to questions, then provide further explanation and additional examples as necessary

Presenter Bio:

Anne Leahy, MA, CI/CT, NAD V has been a private practice ASL–English interpreter/translator, mentor and speaker since 1989. Her master’s thesis found legal interpreting developed before UK and US Deaf education, communities, or signed languages themselves. She is currently expanding historical study of hearing and deaf interpreters in legal settings through a research PhD in Translation Studies at the University of Birmingham, forthcoming 2020. She welcomes inquiries from fellow “interpredemics” to include or clarify foundational sources in their own work. For more information, see interpreterhistory.com,  at /InterpreterHistory, or Twitter @interphistory.