Sign supported oral interpreting?

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ismi

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I started using oral interpreting at work a few months ago, and it's really worked out well. The interpreter also asked me if I wanted her to support the OI with signing (she primarily does ASL and PSE, not OI), and I did that, too. It was helpful - even with my limited signing abilities, having a repeated gesture to go with each concept was useful.

So in the future when I'm arranging oral interpreting services, do I need to specify in advance that the interpreter needs to be able to sign as well, or is that ability pretty much a given for oral interpreters?
 
It's best if you specify exactly what kind of terp that you want, just to be safe.
 
Yes, absolutely specify. I have done quite a bit of interpreting like this, but it was in the guise of being an ASL interpreter. I'm not trained as an oral interpreter, but I have a few regular clients who are primarily oral and use the signs as support, so I make sure to do both. I'm not sure how many terps have training in both oral and sign interpreting, but I would suggest asking for the one you feel is more important and then adding the rest as a request. Such as, "I need an oral interpreter, but they should be able to sign too" if you would rather have an oral terp, or "I need a sign language interpreter, but they should have some experience with oral interpreting too."
 
ismi said:
is that ability pretty much a given for oral interpreters?
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It's not a given. Where I work, yeah, it is, because only the sign language interpreters do oral interpreting, but I know there are oral interpreters who do NOT sign. Definitely specify in the future. Glad it worked out for you!
 
Thanks, all. [Goes to request interpreting services for next semester.]
 
Good luck, ismi. Do let us know how it goes with sign-supported oral 'terps in class!
 
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