Assumed skills of other professionals
An experienced and qualified interpreter has been booked for an employment disciplinary appeal following a Deaf persons’ dismissal.
On meeting, the interpreter realises that the client isn’t a native or fluent BSL user. Communication is possible but it is challenging.
As some key issues were unclear, the interpreter suggests a further meeting with the clients’ deaf advice worker attending. The interpreter assumes that the advice worker has good communication skills and background knowledge and hopes that this will ensure accuracy and understanding.
During this meeting, the interpreter realises that the advice worker uses strong Sign Supported English (SSE) not BSL. The Deaf client doesn’t understand SSE.
- What would you have done to prevent this situation?
- And would you do now?
Professional and Customer perspectives:
The interpreter feels responsible for the confusion as they made an untested assumption about the knowledge and skills of the Deaf advice worker. They were not an interpreter, but to some extent the interpreter behaved as if they were. At the end, they in fact did suggest an alternative explanation to something, which the interpreter hadn’t thought of, and which made a lot of things clearer.