Wyatte C. Hall, Bill Millios, Kelby Brick
The past 50 years has seen American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting in the United States shift from community-based development (Deaf clubs, churches, and family members) to formal education, training, and professional standards. As this professionalization progressed, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act was an inflection point that created legal requirements for interpreters in a wide variety of everyday settings. This enabled more access to advanced education and professional opportunities for Deaf people. Organic growth and demand has led to over 140 interpreter education programs in the United States. The rapid increase of Deaf professionals in advanced fields, however, outpaces development and typical ASL interpreter qualifications. As institutions experience an influx of Deaf professionals in various academic, corporate, and clinical roles, they are often left without guidelines and practices tailored to Deaf professional work that will enable quality access in these high-stakes environments. One such institution with a large concentration of Deaf professionals is the University of Rochester Medical Center. In response to this, an effort to restructure Deaf professional interpreting services under its Office of Equity & Inclusion with a centralized budget for institution-wide access needs was undertaken. This restructuring included surveys, interviews, and focus groups with a wide variety of individuals that use, provide, and oversee interpreting services. A list of 10 foundational principles to provide high-quality access within a Deaf-centered language equity framework emerged from this stakeholder-driven process. Through these Principles, adverse and affirming practices were identified and some historically-viewed “best practices” were discovered to have adverse effects. Instead of practice driving principles, principles must drive practice. This work demonstrates that a committed institution can uplift marginalized language minority communities as fully-included members of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. We will share the principles, and discuss their application in various professional environments with Deaf people around the world.