Scientific and public health knowledge must be communicated efficiently to the public during
a health crisis to allow communities to respond, recover, and prepare. Public briefings and
national campaigns are important components of this communication, and sign language
interpreting may be an element of this process. This paper examines the experiences of sign
language interpreters during the COVID-19 crisis in Ireland and the UK, and explores their
role in providing access to scientific and public health information for the Deaf or hard of
hearing (DHH) community. Findings in this study are based on interviews conducted in the
first half of 2020 with 16 Irish Sign Language (ISL) or British Sign Language (BSL)
interpreters or science communicators, 11 of whom had direct experience of interpreting
during COVID-19 public briefings. These interviews constitute authentic accounts of sign
language interpreters working during a global health crisis. Interviews were qualitatively
analysed using theoretical assumptions from Witter-Merithew and Nicodemus (2010) about
the development of specialisation among sign language interpreters to discuss how
specialised competence and scientific understanding factored into participants' experiences
and to derive lessons to inform future crises.
Metadata
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Sign language interpreting; COVID-19 crisis; Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) community; specialised competence; scientific understanding