Identifying Hearing ASL – English Interpreter’s Current Practice in Determining the Need of Deaf Interpreters for Court Proceedings

This webinar will be a presentation of Christopher Tester's MA Thesis, titled: How American Sign Language-English Interpreters Who Can Hear Determine Need for a Deaf Interpreter for Court Proceedings. This study investigated how and when hearing interpreters in the United States decide there is a need for a Deaf interpreter for court proceedings. Previous publications have strongly suggested that it is best practice to work with a Deaf interpreter for specific situations (NCIEC, 2007). The author utilized two frameworks: Brennan & Brown's (1997) Equality before the Law, and Mathers' (2009) Deaf interpreters in court: an accommodation that is more than reasonable to design a study that will bring to light the criteria used by hearing ASL-English interpreters to determine when a Deaf interpreter should be utilized. This research also explored the hearing interpreter's view of the Deaf interpreter and allowed for discussion of experience of working as the hearing member of a Deaf-hearing team in the courtroom.