A Reason for the License

One of the projects I have been working on is on licensing interpreters practicing in DC (and, hopefully, MD and VA). I have been embroiled in this controversy for several months now and I have fought my way through pounds of rhetoric, hours of arguments, and the piranha pool that is any political struggle. The Deaf consumers have a perspective, the hearing consumers (DC agencies, in this case) have their interests, and the poor interpreter is getting ground between the mortar and pestle of these opposing factions. I generally support the cause of licensing and the reasons are legion. Last night, I had a classic example of why I feel this way.

I am frequently called out to respond to police calls overnight. Last night I was called to a hospital to interpret for a detective investigating allegations of a sexual assault. I arrived on the scene to find an interpreter present for the hospital (this is normal). I introduced myself and explained my role, but I could tell she had no clue what I was talking about. I asked her name and the name of the company that sent her. A quick internet search revealed:

• This "interpreter" is not even a member of RID, much less certified.
• The company that sent her has three employees listed on the web, none of whom are certified interpreters in any way or have any kind of professional presence in this field beyond this company.
• Neither the interpreter nor the company members are members of PCRID.

*sighs*

The doctor on staff gave the detective the run down on the information that had been given to her via the interpreter. When the detective and I tried to enter room, the interpreter (we'll call her SS, short for "Sunday Signer") followed us in. She proceeded to comment and respond to the detectives questions of the patient before I even had a chance to finish the interpretations. She was trying to communicate with the patient to add her own interpretations to the process. I finally had to kick her out of the room since she clearly didn't understand what was going on.

As the investigation proceeded, I discovered a multitude of factual errors from this interpreter's original work. To wit:

• The name of the deaf patient was wrong (wrong first name).
• The patient's birthdate was wrong (wrong month and year).
• The patient's address was wrong (wrong street name and wrong apt number).
• The location of the alleged attacker was wrong (wrong state).
• The age of the attacker was wrong (30, not 70!!).
• The date of the allegation was wrong (4, not 18).

And, most importantly, the basis of the complaint was WRONG. She never made an allegation of sexual assault. What she did sign could (maybe, possibly, if you were slightly drunk and had recently had a stick poked in you eye) have been misunderstood, but the Deaf gal was clear, repetitious and adamant about what had happened. I just don't know how SS could have messed that up so badly.

The tragedy of this is that there was a huge waste of resources to respond to this imaginary report. Since SS has no professional credentials, I have no one to go to and file a complaint. I have contacted the company who sent her to the hospital and I am hoping to find a resolution there. If not, I will escalate the issue with the hospital and the police department. I don't think it is fair that the DC government had to pay me and the detective to respond to that situation because a company failed to employ appropriate quality controls in staffing their assignments. I think it's horrifying that the patient had to undergo unnecessary examination, treatment, and extremely extended wait times because of these errors. Licensing of interpreters to practice would, hopefully, go a long way to regulating these fly-by-night interlopers. I have no problem with Sunday Signers learning the language and working in their local churches to support their communities. I have huge issues with these charlatans putting their shingle out to act as a professional interpreter, a career to which I devote an inordinate amount of time, money, and effort.

Long time gone...

It's been a million years (okay, two) since I posted here, but I am trying to get my act together on this. I continue to feel like one of the luckiest fools on the planet with the nature of my work. Here are some recent highlights of my days:

- Interpreting for a dear old friend as she entered the final stages of her pregnancy. I don't do a great deal of medical interpreting anymore, so this was a particular treat!

- Having an excellent, although difficult, conversation with a couple of colleagues who found themselves desperately over their heads in a legal interpreting situation. I am particularly proud of this work because I could have really made their days suck and the situation be horrible if I had chosen to go that route. I was inspired by a colleague who was telling me recently that we have a choice when confronted with other practitioners doing it "wrong". She told me that we could keep our frustrations to ourselves and then engage in a smear campaign or we could address our feelings in the moment and take a risk that a learning moment might happen. I am pleased to say that this was the first time that this worked out well for me.

- Working with an amazing scientific demonstration that involved projections on a spherical surface as a way to display the fantastic data that our satellites produce.

Of course, there are other amazing things, but I have to abide by my confidentiality mandates. All of these experiences mean that I clearly was NOT in Atlanta last week attending the biannual RID conference. Due to some health issues, I chose not to go. I can't say I was at all excited to go in the first place. I mean, who chooses Atlanta...in JULY?!? 2013 will be in Indianapolis, so I will likely attend that one. However, 2015 is going down to New Orleans. As tempted as I might be to visit the Big Easy, I've already been there twice and will have to seriously consider what that might be like in August. Ugh.

FINANCIAL TIP

I've considered adding a regular feature to this blog to talk about some of the news around $$$. The most obvious fact that interpreters should be aware of at this point in time is the IRS change to the mileage reimbursement rates. We get a whopping 51 cents/mile right now, so don't be afraid to accept those far-flung gigs. For more information, visit the IRS's page on the subject.

Happy Trails!