Sign Language Interpreter Spotted!
So you saw a sign language interpreter on the television news (or maybe at a music concert). Congratulations on stumbling upon this beautiful, incredible language of ours.
Hold on. Before you start posting things like…
“What heroes. I’m crying.”… “Fake interpreter!”…“oh, that’s so beautiful!”… “Are they faking?! I know no sign language but I can tell they’re faking!” … “They bring such joy to a terrible occasion.” “LOL. This is hilarious. Check this out, bro.” …“oh such terrible distractions. I can’t listen” …“sign language lady.”… “They’re being way too expressive. They must be faking it.” …“They look like they’re having fun!”… “That can’t be ASL. ASL doesn’t have facial expressions.”… ‘This is perfect material for SNL (Saturday Night Live).”
All of those were said during the recent Lewistown, Maine mass shooting news updates. October 2023.
Here’s a little heads-up.
Making a spectacle out of the interpreter is unoriginal. Case in point, here’s a little taste from… 2012. Complete with tweets.
2012.
In the last three months alone, we had four incidents that hit the social media rounds. Count ’em. FOUR. 4. in. three. months.
The latest? The Lewistown, Maine mass shootings that left 18 people killed including four members of the local deaf community.
2023.
Let’s get something out of the way. It’s getting old. You have any idea how often a sign language interpreter goes viral? The same talking points come up again and again.
A Primer for Hearing People
Let’s get one thing out of the way: we don’t call them sign language ladies. The phrase is Sign Language Interpreter. Also known as a paying job for trained professionals.
Fakers/Unqualified Interpreters
Genuinely worried that an interpreter is faking it and deaf communities are being harmed? Well, we do have the occasional fake interpreter appear on scene. Fortunately, those incidents are very rare and few in between. Most entities have improved screening and hiring practices in the last decade. Fake interpreters are pretty unlikely.
Even if you’re convinced they’re faking, what should you do? Sit back. Let us lead the conversation. Let deaf people advocate for ourselves. We are capable of identifying unqualified interpreters and communicating our criticism. What do we want you to do? Amplify us, support us, hear us, but don’t speak for us.
Really need to check? Privately ask a deaf friend or direct message a deaf advocate a heads up. Do Not post this criticism publicly then say “jeez, I was just looking out for deaf people… harmless question!”
Why is it not harmless? Because we can’t afford to undermine the credibility of interpreters. Constant undermining, however well-intentioned, leads to negative consequences for deaf people’s access. This can mean things like decisions to stop using interpreters, loss of public confidence in sign language interpreting as an important site of access, interpreters’ refusal to accept public-facing jobs (yes they can and do refuse) out of fear of embarrassment or damage to professional reputation. Making fun of sign languages also minimizes their legitimacy, which contributes to the growing crisis of language deprivation syndrome among deaf children. Such attitudes also limit opportunities for deaf adults who primarily use sign language.
Example:
This isn’t new. See series of tweets from 2014. Even journalist Mike Wallace joined in.
I’m sure that’s not really ASL…my ASL teacher told me differently!
Great. Glad you’re interested in ASL. Love that you took a semester or three. But those few classes don’t make you an expert. Not enough to judge fluency and certainly not enough to tell deaf people they’re wrong when they tell you that, yes, the interpreter is fluent.
A few semesters of ASL classes does not qualify anyone to evaluate a person’s fluency in ASL.
Your classes may not have exposed you to regional variation or dialects. Your classes may not have taught you how to sign differently for different mediums or audiences. Your teacher is human, humans make mistakes. And the quality of ASL instruction varies wildly.
Leave the judging to us. We’re pretty good at it.
But… The Faces They Make! How is that legit?
Believe it or not, those facial expressions have legitimate linguistic functions.
For the well-intentioned reader:
- Facial expressions are a visual way to show tone, inflection, and emotion that one hears in spoken language.
- Facial expressions are used to show constructed action
- Facial expressions are used as grammatical markings to modify signs much like adverbs and adjectives.
- Facial expressions are used to communicate clause type
- Sign language makes use of the entire body: hands to make signs, facial expressions for a variety of things, eye gaze, even the positioning of your feet, hips, and shoulders.
- Those things all happen at the same time and must be taken in as a whole for clarity.
- Facial expressions are necessary to communicate the full message and accurately convey meaning.
For the “newsworthiness” of facial expressions: see 2020 article from Maine Public.
Note: The audience for the interpreters are deaf people at home watching them on television. The interpreter has to sign larger and with more emphasis on facial expressions to ensure that nuance is captured by the camera.
But those expressions!
There’s a bunch of variation on this theme. Common complaints include: disrespectful, joyful, hilarious, SNL Material…
You think it’s disrespectful because you don’t know what those expressions mean. And you’ve been conditioned to think that sign language is comedy fodder so when you do see it, you think it’s being done to “lighten the mood” or insert joy into an otherwise terrible situation.
See how you’ve been conditioned to think interpreting is for comedic entertainment?
Or you think that that all of sign language is just funny. You think it’s funny because you’ve been conditioned to think that anything different or unusual should be either feared or mocked.
You know what isn’t funny? Deaf people getting misinformation or no information. Deaf people being deprived of access and/or language. Deaf people dying because public audiences think sign language interpreters aren’t valid or acceptable venues for access. Deaf people excluded from belonging in society or participating in the public square because you think our language isn’t legitimate. The fact that you think it’s funny that we have no idea what’s going on or how to protect ourselves in time of danger/epidemics means you don’t think disabled lives are worth protecting.
They seem to be having too much fun…
No, the interpreters are not being “funny” or “inserting joy” in an otherwise terrible situation. For the recent Lewistown shootings, here’s a little reminder. Deaf networks are intimate. A tragedy hit the local deaf community in Maine. Four deaf men died along many others in a mass shooting. The interpreter’s colleague and friends were among those killed.
Any time an interpreter interprets a pandemic, hurricane, or other emergency, remember this: they are affected too. They come from the local communities where the threat/emergency is and have their own worries. Sometimes the state police has to come to the interpreter’s house, dig them out from under 10 feet of snow, and bring them to headquarters. Then they’re stuck at headquarters worrying about their families and houses. In cases like this, no one is “trying to be funny or entertaining.” Have some empathy, people.
It’s DISTRACTING me!
How about turning around and looking at the wall while you listen, then? Or just get used to the presence of sign languages in public spaces. The interpreter is there to provide access to deaf people watching on tv. Deaf people deserve to have equitable access to information.
Oh, but wouldn’t closed captioning be more effective?, you ask? Not necessarily. Due to the crisis of language deprivation syndrome and the utter brokenness of the deaf education system, captioned English is not accessible for many deaf people.
One thing to remember: the desire to keep sign languages out of public sight is eugenicist. Goes back to the 19th century and the desire to rid the country of visibly disabled (including deaf) people. Pick up a deaf history book or two.
This isn’t just history though. There is still very much a desire to eradicate sign languages from the face of the Earth. Case in point: a 2023 tweet saying “say goodbye to the sign language.”
Why do deaf people keep getting riled up if this has gotten old: Because access is hard fought, easily lost.
“Enemies of the sign language, they are enemies of the true welfare of the deaf…It is my hope that we all will love and guard our beautiful sign language as the noblest gift God has given to deaf people.” ~George Veditz, 1913.
Here are links to two articles I’ve written on the subject:
Anthropology Now with Dr. Lynn Hou
