ASL interpreting is the translation between American Sign Language (ASL) and another language, typically English, to allow communication between deaf and hearing people. ASL interpretation is done by qualified ASL interpreters and is common in medical, legal, educational, mental health, and vocational environments. Interpretation may be consecutive or simultaneous, and pairs or teams of interpreters may engage in different interpreting styles. ASL interpretation has been regulated by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf since 1964. Many American universities offer undergraduate programs in ASL interpretation, and some graduate programs exist for the subject.
Effective Communication
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that title II entities (State and local governments) and title III entities (businesses and nonprofit organizations that serve the public) communicate effectively with people who have communication disabilities, which includes hearing, vision, and speech disabilities, to "ensure that communication with people with these disabilities is equally effective as communication with people without disabilities." The rules of effective communication "ensure that the person with a vision, hearing, or speech disability can communicate with, receive information from, and convey information to, the covered entity."
To ensure effective communication, covered entities must provide auxiliary aids and services when needed and communicate with not only the person who is receiving the covered entity’s goods or services, but also their "companion," which includes any family member, friend, or associate of the person seeking or receiving an entity’s goods or services who is an appropriate person with whom the entity should communicate.
While the ADA requires covered entities to provide interpreters as needed, there are two exceptions which a covered entity can rely on the person's companion: 1. "in an emergency involving an imminent threat to the safety or welfare of an individual or the public, an adult or minor child accompanying a person who uses sign language may be relied upon to interpret or facilitate communication only when a qualified interpreter is not available," and 2. "in situations not involving an imminent threat, an adult accompanying someone who uses sign language may be relied upon to interpret or facilitate communication when a) the individual requests this, b) the accompanying adult agrees, and c) reliance on the accompanying adult is appropriate under the circumstances." The second exception does not apply if the companion is a minor child and covered entities "may not rely on an accompanying adult to interpret when there is reason to doubt the person’s impartiality or effectiveness."
ASL Interpreting as a Profession
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a qualified interpreter is “someone who is able to interpret effectively, accurately, and impartially, both receptively (i.e., understanding what the person with the disability is saying) and expressively (i.e., having the skill needed to convey information back to that person) using any necessary specialized vocabulary.” ASL interpreters work in a large variety of environments, including medical, legal, educational, mental health, vocational, and other environments. Interpreting is often viewed as a practice profession (other examples include law, teaching, counseling, medicine, etc.), which requires a careful judgment of interpersonal and environmental factors as well as expertise in the skills of the profession itself. The interpreter must be able to understand the concepts they are seeing and hearing, perform the mental translation, and communicate them effectively in the second language. Although the interpreter usually intends to be in the background of the conversation and not contribute beyond interpretation, overcoming differences between the languages often requires them to make judgments which might alter the flow of communication. As with any two languages, ASL and English do not have a one-to-one word correspondence, meaning interpreters cannot simply translate word-for-word. They must determine how to effectively communicate what one interlocutor means, rather than strictly what they say, to the other. This leads to interpreters making judgment calls and considering things such as linguistic barriers.