History of Sign Language Interpreting

There are several sign languages for the 70 million deaf individuals in the world, and sign language interpreters help hearing people communicate with the deaf. These interpreters intercept telephone calls and other methods of communication, translating spoken language into sign language or the written word. However, sign language interpreting is a relatively new phenomenon, as sign languages only have recently become standardized and technology for deaf communication has evolved.

Standardizing the Language

• Standardizing sign language paved the road for future interpreters. In Italy and France, standardized sign language developed as early as the 18th and 19th centuries. In America, a standardized sign language emerged when French signer Laurent Clerc brought Old French Sign Language to the United States in the 1800s. This language evolved from French Sign Language to become its own unique signed language, American Sign Language (ASL).

Telecommunications Relay Services

• Some of the first interpreters between deaf and hearing people were operators at telecommunications relay services. They intercepted phone calls and read messages the deaf typed to their hearing friends on text telephones (TTY) or telecommunications devices for the deaf (TTD).

  These were telephones for the deaf, invented in the 1960s, that included keyboards, allowing deaf individuals to type messages and send them over telephone wires. Early interpreters in the late 1900s helped hearing people who did not own TTYs or TTDs by translating these typed messages into spoken language, and vice versa.

Video Relay Services

• In 2002, the first national video relay service for the deaf was launched. This service allows deaf individuals to sign to an interpreter using a web camera, a huge improvement on previous TTYs and TTDs as video relay allows deaf people to use ASL to communicate. The interpreter then translates the ASL into English for the hearing person on the other end of the call. Interpreters fluent in Spanish are able to translate from ASL to Spanish.

Ergonomic Research

• Recently, researchers have been studying the work environment of sign language interpreters to improve it. In 2008, a study by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) revealed that sign language interpreting causes more physical stress than assembly line work, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis.

  When interpreters became mentally stressed, the risk of injury increased as wrist movements increased in acceleration and velocity by 15 to 19 percent. As interpreters are needed to keep a connection with the Deaf community, RIT professor and researcher Matthew Marshall says he wants this research to enhance the ergonomics of sign language interpreting to keep interpreters working without injury.

Today

• Today's sign language interpreters are often freelancers who work part-time, but the pay rate is high as ASL interpreters are in demand. Interpreters may gain certification from the National Association of the Deaf and the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. As video relay services become increasingly popular, the demand for ASL interpreters should increase even more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.