Autistic Interpreter?

Muffinator

Muffinator

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Hi. I hope I am not being too nosy or making you feel like a zoo exhibit. I am Autistic and recently became hard of hearing, but not ready to call myself Deaf. I started learning ASL 2 years ago, and last week I started my 1st class working towards becoming an interpreter. The director of my school's interpreting program (who is also the director of the disability office) told me I should drop the interpreting class because Autistic people can't be interpreters.

The school director is a hearing guy of course, so I thought I should ask around in Deaf spaces and not just take what he says as fact.

If you had an interpreter, let's say for something personal like a doctor's appointment, would it be a problem for you if you found out the interpreter was Autistic? Would you start to worry that you got handed a bad interpreter today?
 
I honestly wouldn't wouldn't be bothered if a terp was autistic. What matters at the end of the day for me is if the interpreter does the job well. If they do, great. I'm sold. :)

I was going to write a longer response, but then realized that much of my thinking was based on stereotypes, which I want to avoid. I've never seen an autistic interpreter before and admit I am curious!

FWIW, you have my support and encouragement. Go out and rock it :)
 
Muffinator said:
Hi. I hope I am not being too nosy or making you feel like a zoo exhibit. I am Autistic and recently became hard of hearing, but not ready to call myself Deaf. I started learning ASL 2 years ago, and last week I started my 1st class working towards becoming an interpreter. The director of my school's interpreting program (who is also the director of the disability office) told me I should drop the interpreting class because Autistic people can't be interpreters.

The school director is a hearing guy of course, so I thought I should ask around in Deaf spaces and not just take what he says as fact.

If you had an interpreter, let's say for something personal like a doctor's appointment, would it be a problem for you if you found out the interpreter was Autistic? Would you start to worry that you got handed a bad interpreter today?
Click to expand...

From another hearing person's point of view, if you're good at ASL, you can!
 
How will you deal with eye contact and expressive facial that is very necessary?
 
I have a niece and she has Asperger's and volunteer to teach English as a second language . She will take over the class when the teacher isn't there. So don't let the director of your school's interpreting program stop you from being an ASL Interpreter . You will be a ASL Interpreter who is Autistic . Go for it !
 
If you can graduate from an ITP and pass certification requirements, then you can become an interpreter.

Like Botts posted, eye contact and facial expression are important and part of ASL fluency. I would add that terps also need to have a degree of empathy in order to accurately convey emotions and tone via facial expressions for ASL and voice inflections for spoken language. If you can do that, then you should be OK.
 
Bottesini said:
How will you deal with eye contact and expressive facial that is very necessary?
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I think I can fake neurotypical eye contact if I meet a client (is that the right term?) who wants me to do that. I will know for sure when I'm not in the introduction class. Facial expression has never been a problem. If anything I've been internally screaming at the other ASL students who don't use their faces.
 
Muffinator said:
I think I can fake neurotypical eye contact if I meet a client (is that the right term?) who wants me to do that. I will know for sure when I'm not in the introduction class. Facial expression has never been a problem. If anything I've been internally screaming at the other ASL students who don't use their faces.
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Deaf people are pretty adept with eye contact (and facial expressiveness and emotion and etc). Much more so than hearing people are. If you go this route, then my advice is to be sure it looks and feels natural to the client.

The mental image that popped up in my head was that of lifelike 3D video game characters. Designers try as hard as they can to make the characters as lifelike as possible, but somehow it's not quite right and ends up looking weird. I know the 'weird' feeling might deter me as a client.

Also, off-point. Here's another perspective: as an autistic person, you have cognitive skills that are not easily available to most people. Maybe you can explore how to leverage those to provide unique and advantageous interpreting that other interpreters cannot provide? There might also be fields of interpreting that are more suited to you (medical? legal?), but I am going on stereotype, so take that with a grain of salt. :)
 
Most deaf people have good eye contact etc.. but I don't lol. I have no idea why.. it's hard for me to sometimes keep the eye contact going... more so in the hearing world (Ironically- lipreading.. but I suck) but it happens in deaf spaces too. I agree with Muse though... keep it natural. Don't overdo or stress too much about if you are doing everything right all at once. Hell- when I first learned, the expressiveness part took a while to catch up with my signing- learning to "think" in ASL/sign etc.

I don't see why not- try for it and see how it goes in the intro class. The fact you are already internally musing (screaming) about the other ASL student's lack of facial expression tells me you might be good.

I know of a young man who is on the autism spectrum- pretty high level but he still has his issues. He started taking classes in High school and they found that he really liked it- I can't remember what benefits he derived (not communication- he was fine there lol) but he joined the school's Sign Chorus and has gone to some deaf events with his classmates in the past. Right now I know he's teaching a few signs to his baby son (his sister is teaching the kid French lol). Ah... helped him be a bit more focused with expressing himself more I think it was.

I was once told that when he and his sister would sign conversations (normal level type) with voice off to try to fool momma... she wasn't having none of it- somehow she knew...
 
Bottesini said:
How will you deal with eye contact and expressive facial that is very necessary?
Click to expand...
Excellent point! But then again even Asperger's level autism can be a really huge spectrum so it's hard to say. Someone with classic severe autism (like the type where they might interpret crying as making a funny noise) might not be able to interpret very well, but someone who might be on an higher level might be able to handle the eye contact and the facial expressions.
 
Bottesini said:
How will you deal with eye contact and expressive facial that is very necessary?
Click to expand...
I am autistic and am 1 year away from being a fully qualified BSL interpreter. We learn to make eye contact the more we talk to deaf people. Myself I make eye contact with deaf people all the time to the extent that most of the deaf community don’t even know that I have autism. I also use allot of NMF ( facial expressions) when I am signing. If it’s our interest we learn everything about it. Mine is sign language so therefore I know allot about why it’s important to do that so I always do it. So this person is learning as well so they will do it automatically. It’s only someone who doesn’t know sign won’t use it
 
Muse said:
I honestly wouldn't wouldn't be bothered if a terp was autistic. What matters at the end of the day for me is if the interpreter does the job well. If they do, great. I'm sold. :)

I was going to write a longer response, but then realized that much of my thinking was based on stereotypes, which I want to avoid. I've never seen an autistic interpreter before and admit I am curious!

FWIW, you have my support and encouragement. Go out and rock it :)
Click to expand...
That’s nice to know. I am autistic person training to be a BSL interpreter. I’m aware our languages ASL and BSL are different but the oppinion of deaf people are still the same. This is good to know as the only other 2 remaining autistic interpreters in the uk we face allot of discrimination because of the pure fact that we have autism by normal interpreters. Who say to us that we cannot provide a good enough service to a deaf person because we have autism, we are not capable. And like your comment myself I told the other to that I am determined! I will carry on regardless of oppinion I will not quit! I’ve worked 8 years to help deaf and if the deaf person is happy and appreciate my work/ service that’s what is important! Not the oppinion of others. I will not quit as easily as the other 2. I am making a stand! I will stay to prove it can be done! And that the system needs to be changed. The entire examination board, the exams, the work to get to be fully qualified is not made for people like me. I have to work twice as hard as none autistic people to get to where I want to be. I want to inspire other autistic people in the uk to do what I’m doing by staying there in the company and twist their arm to make changes.
 
I honestly wouldn't wouldn't be bothered if a terp was autistic. What matters at the end of the day for me is if the interpreter does the job well. If they do, great. I'm sold. :)
 
Rainbow_T said:
That’s nice to know. I am autistic person training to be a BSL interpreter. I’m aware our languages ASL and BSL are different but the oppinion of deaf people are still the same. This is good to know as the only other 2 remaining autistic interpreters in the uk we face allot of discrimination because of the pure fact that we have autism by normal interpreters. Who say to us that we cannot provide a good enough service to a deaf person because we have autism, we are not capable. And like your comment myself I told the other to that I am determined! I will carry on regardless of oppinion I will not quit! I’ve worked 8 years to help deaf and if the deaf person is happy and appreciate my work/ service that’s what is important! Not the oppinion of others. I will not quit as easily as the other 2. I am making a stand! I will stay to prove it can be done! And that the system needs to be changed. The entire examination board, the exams, the work to get to be fully qualified is not made for people like me. I have to work twice as hard as none autistic people to get to where I want to be. I want to inspire other autistic people in the uk to do what I’m doing by staying there in the company and twist their arm to make changes.
Click to expand...
Hello, I am Autistic Sign Language Interpreter in the United States. I took my National Certification Testing for the 2nd time and I am awaiting my results. I have been trained and I have been in the interpreting field for quite a long time. Passing this certification test is significant for me as it will prove my skills and ability as up to par with all the other interpreters in the field. Being Autistic has its challenges, let alone, being an Autistic interpreter, I agree, we do face discrimination regarding the quality of our service, however when we finally pass these qualifying tests, I feel it quiets the doubters in our skills and abilities and encourages others to crush their own obstacles.
 
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