The role of the classroom interpreter is to “effectively communicate classroom information between the teacher, the deaf student,¹ and other hearing students according to the language level of the student and the goals of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP)” (Boys Town National Research Hospital, n.d.-b). And although the classroom interpreter is responsible for the language exchange so that all individuals present can share in the classroom experience, “interpreters are continuously making decisions about the meaning of the source message, how to abandon the source form and convey the message in the target language structure, and conveyance of the intent and communication goals of the interlocutors” (Smith, 2015, p. 7). This is no different from any other interpreting setting, and sometimes may be influenced by the interpreter’s extralinguistic knowledge (ELK). However, there is another layer that makes interpreting in the classroom unique:

interpreting for children and youth is different than interpreting for adults. Childhood and adolescence involve development in many important domains—cognitive, social, and linguistic. Schools foster many forms of development, not just learning classroom content. By working with a student, all adults automatically become role models, language models, and disciplinarians as well as many other roles. (Boys Town National Research Hospital, n.d.-a)

The latter makes the interpreter responsible for knowing and, sometimes, identifying, the typical adolescent development of the child, modeling mature social and linguistic interactions, as well as knowing how to make connections between the academic content or even the combined social norms while interpreting in a way that is adapted to the Deaf worldview. In being able to interpret these nuances to the teacher, the interpreter gives the teacher better access to the Deaf student and the capacity to make informed decisions. Often, in the interpreting field, this is considered as cultural mediation, even for spoken language interpreters.

Cultural differences are found in speech, in formulating a request, an instruction or a critique, and extend all the way to differences in thought, conversational techniques and negotiation tactics. The interpreter must often be able to explain elements of the foreign culture in order to create successful communication. In the end, these elements may cause misunderstanding in the listener, or evoke negative reactions. (Tetra Translations, 2019)

In addition, Marschark et al. (2005) found that Deaf students acquire less of what is happening in the classroom than their hearing peers, although those who preferred American Sign Language (ASL)-fluent interpreters had significantly higher scores. Not all interpreters are fluent in ASL but do very well as transliterators. Further explained,

One component of this view is the assumption that the structure of discourse and the information communicated by a hearing instructor for hearing students is appropriate to the knowledge and learning styles of Deaf students. Yet students who are deaf are far more heterogeneous than hearing students, and as approximately 95% of them have hearing parents (Mitchell & Karchmer, 2004), most grow up with relatively limited language fluencies. As a result, their educational histories are more variable than those of hearing peers, they often lack the linguistic competencies necessary to make effective use of interpreting (Winston, 1994) and textbooks (Traxler, 2000), and they may enter postsecondary settings less well prepared than hearing peers. Moreover, there is now considerable evidence that Deaf students differ from hearing students in several academically related cognitive domains, thus putting them at risk in integrated classrooms compared to settings designed to accommodate their special needs (e.g., Marschark, Convertino, & LaRock, in press; Schick, in press). (Marschark et al., 2005, p. 39)

A native-user approach² is missing in these scenarios that are utilizing only the hearing interpreter. Perhaps, as a result, the cultural mediation and organization of information exchanged in the classroom is missing the cohesive relevance for the teacher and the student to foster a healthy development of a two-way academic learning. This is often where an individualized education plan (IEP) determination or an interpreter coordinator will identify that the situation needs the involvement of a Deaf interpreter³ to improve access to enable the student’s language competencies to absorb academic instruction.

Another layer of complexity in the United States is working with students from other countries in English dominant classrooms. The educational interpreters often have to learn to use words that are inclusive of the foreign child’s worldview, all the while adapting interpretations that bridge the language or communication needs. An example may come up while the teacher asks eighth graders about different careers, which at first looks like something one can just simply interpret. In the United States, an occupation is often defined as one that includes traveling to the job site, clocking in, obeying orders, and carrying out specific tasks. Most children in the United States observe their parents with these work habits regardless of financial status. In contrast, students from remote areas of the Congo may only observe village collaborative work, such as their mothers going next door to make baskets and their fathers remaining in the hut to make glass from melting sand over a fire. So the interpreter must remember that words like career are subjective and need to be culturally mediated for relevance in how the word or concept is signed. Deaf children, even from the United States, have a worldview that sets their learning experience apart from those of their hearing peers. The educational interpreter must possess some, preferably advanced and visual, understanding of these worldviews (their fund of knowledge) to effectively interpret the classroom content. With a native-user approach, there is an efficiency that makes these complex layers more equitable, and “creates” or “fosters” a least restrictive learning environment for Deaf children. Using a Deaf interpreter essentially provides a Deaf fund of knowledge, a conceptually accurate and extensive signed vocabulary at the ready, gestural skills for bridging new vocabulary and familiar concepts, along with a visually oriented understanding of the world that is accessed as a Deaf person. Their Deaf extralinguistic knowledge—also called their DELK.

The Deaf Interpreter

Regardless of setting, the Deaf interpreter, like the hearing interpreter, is responsible for the language exchange and ensuring effective communication is taking place. In addition, the role of a Deaf interpreter is to use their native competency in ASL and other signed languages, home signs, and gestures, as well as their phenomenologic or lived experience to meet the needs of a diverse group. Deaf interpreters are also members of that diverse group. In the classroom, a Deaf interpreter uses both the personal knowledge from their own way of living as a Deaf person and previous experience as a Deaf student (their DELK) to make the content relevant to the Deaf student’s learning experience. More elaborately, a Deaf interpreter is:

a specialist who provides interpreting, translation, and transliteration services in American Sign Language and other visual and tactual communication forms used by individuals who are Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and Deaf-Blind. As a Deaf person, the Deaf Interpreter starts with a distinct set of formative linguistic, cultural, and life experiences that enables nuanced comprehension and interaction in a wide range of visual language and communication forms influenced by region, culture, age, literacy, education, class, and physical, cognitive, and mental health. These experiences coupled with professional training give the Deaf interpreter the ability to affect successful communication across all types of interpreted interactions, both routine and high risk. NCIEC [National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers] studies indicate that in many situations, use of a Deaf Interpreter enables a level of linguistic and cultural bridging that is often not possible when hearing ASL-English interpreters work alone. (Deaf Interpreter Institute, 2019)

What kinds of students benefit the most from a Deaf interpreter? Schools that advocate the use of Deaf interpreters have noted that, ideally, all students could have access to a Deaf interpreter while their language is still developing to ensure language is modeled to its highest proficiency. In the United States, it is a reasonable expectation that teachers instruct subjects in their content area, using native or near-native English. But is it reasonable to expect a hearing nonnative ASL-signing educational interpreter, who may have graduated from an interpreting program (typically comprising only four years of ASL study in addition to the interpreting course load) to model the highest proficiency of ASL? A further concern arises from having to try to discern content that the educational interpreter may have minimal understanding of and address the overlapping interpreting demands in a classroom.

Schick et al. (1999) found that less than half of the [hearing] interpreters they evaluated [through the EIPA] met the minimum skills necessary to interpret in the classroom. However, schools that are using Deaf interpreters note that a Deaf interpreter can share the responsibility in meeting and even exceeding the minimum expectations with their hearing team members by ensuring the Deaf child is getting all of the above through a native-user approach. The demand, then, for Deaf interpreters in K–12 settings increases because the students’ academic success is of ultimate concern.

Frequently, people who have yet to utilize Deaf interpreters question the ability of the team to keep up with the classroom speed. The idea that it takes “additional time” for the Deaf/hearing interpreting team to interpret in the classroom is contradicted by research. Notably, Cerney (2005) found

the [Deaf-hearing] interpreters maintained mutual eye-gaze only 24% of the time, but at least one interpreter was watching the other across 80% of the data sample. Overall this research indicates that relayed interpretation is highly accurate, grammatically enhanced, and on average requires less than two seconds longer to accomplish than non-relayed interpretation. (p. 3)

Cerney adds that “the average processing time is around six seconds with the Hearing interpreter using just under five of those seconds and the Deaf interpreter completing the interpretation with just over one second additional to that time” (2005, p. 55). Not only is it a mere few seconds’ time difference, but also a highly effective interpretation of academic content leads to less student confusion and less need for repairing misunderstandings. This essentially is an effective reallotment of the mere seconds used. In the end, the use of a Deaf and hearing team in the classroom does not require any more time than when using only a hearing interpreting team.

Often the use of a Deaf interpreter is resorted to for two reasons. First, to ensure the student’s academic and social access is not delayed further, and, second, the need to become acquainted with the interpreting process. It is probable that any social and academic delays could significantly alienate the Deaf student from their peers. This transitional approach of using a Deaf interpreter first worked successfully with three different students the author worked with over an 8-year period. A student’s fund of knowledge is often a strong determining factor in the mandatory placement of Deaf interpreters, especially when there are multiple needs. Another group of Deaf students that benefit the most from a Deaf interpreter are those who have moved from another country and know a signed language other than ASL. More commonly, the use of Deaf interpreters benefits Deaf students that have significant language barriers, as well as those who have co-occurring disabilities that impact their comprehension of or access to standardized ASL.⁴ Lastly, Deaf students with physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, that impact their expressive language use in a way that only a native sign language user could access efficiently, benefit from a Deaf interpreter.

Marschark et al. (2005) state the following:

This situation [academic disparity] is not the result of students’ having hearing losses; it is the result of how and what we teach them. Only when we fully understand how Deaf students learn and what they really understand from different communication modalities and the interaction of these two—can we optimize their educational opportunities. (p. 48)

The proactive use of a bilingual/bicultural interpreting team (aka Deaf and hearing teams working together, or a Deaf interpreter working with a teacher of the Deaf) as an intervention minimizes the subsequent additional challenges in the Deaf student’s academic experience in the classroom. Those challenges will appear when the Deaf student transitions into a member of society. As Hall et al. (2017) note:

Indeed, some claim that the higher prevalence of trauma and psychiatric symptoms in the deaf population are partially caused by inappropriate and/or incomplete medical and educational language interventions early in life, which creates risk for subsequent language deprivation and behavioral health problems. (p. 763)

More and more schools are calling for the use of bilingual/bicultural teams in recognition of the importance of the native-user approach during the student’s formative academic years, to reduce the possibility of exacerbating language delays and negative learning experiences regardless of any cognitive or physical disabilities a deaf student may or may not have.

Why a Deaf Interpreter?

Deaf individuals have unofficially served in an “interpreting role” in classrooms since public education was available! Deaf students would interpret for other students in the Deaf schools. It was a natural phenomenon for one Deaf student to fill in the gap for another Deaf student that might have missed something because they were doing something else, such as taking notes or even interpreting to another Deaf student. Or maybe one student struggled with a concept as a result of a fund of knowledge gap, and a peer would fill in this gap to keep the teacher’s class lecture moving. Many Deaf people grew up already having experienced “interpreting” or “language brokering” informally. This is what makes the native-user approach that much more valuable. It is a natural resource that all interpreters can embrace in their interpreting work. These Deaf students, even after graduation, often go on and continue “language brokering” instinctively. They have been doing it in American schools for years, especially if they go into education as residential staff, paraprofessionals, or even as teachers of those who are deaf. Deaf interpreters know what it is like to use interpreters and what it is like to be an interpreter; thus, training is crucial for efficient bilingual/bicultural interpreting in the classroom.

In other words, Deaf interpreters have extensive experience being students in Deaf and/or public schools and are therefore better prepared for their role in a public school with a large number of mainstreamed Deaf students. The personal experience of relying on various interpreters for most of their public school education and/or in other settings helps Deaf interpreters appreciate many aspects of educational interpreting from both a consumer’s and a provider’s point of view.

For example, Deaf interpreters have a deeper appreciation of when to get a Deaf student’s attention and when to let the students use their eyes for another academic-related task. Deaf interpreters are also highly aware of the importance of who said what, and why, and are thus better able to frame an interpretation as a complete package with strong coherence and relevance. This would be akin to a form of discourse mapping that includes the origin of a comment or a piece of information as a causation prior to an effect that happened, which, in turn, informs the relevance in the cause and effect of information and builds coherence for the Deaf student in the whole picture. For example, when a teacher disciplines students in the back of the room who initiated a private conversation that caused the entire class to burst out laughing, the Deaf students need to know the following as this interaction is interpreted: that this is a normal exchange between the teacher and the student, that hearing students can also create trouble (this is often missed by the Deaf student), and why their classmates are laughing all of a sudden. Interpreters who are themselves not members of the Deaf community may not know that some essential social happenings may be culturally bound, and thus may overlook the background to the essential social happenings that contribute to healthy peer learning in a classroom.

The Deaf/Hearing Interpreting Team

It is crucial for Deaf interpreters to work with hearing interpreter teams to develop various feed techniques and classroom management controls, and to be flexible about the logistics as the classroom moves about. In a science class, for example, there may be rapid-fire questions, so a Deaf interpreter would stand next to the teacher, preread the question (as would a hearing interpreter), and watch the hearing interpreter to know when to start sight-translation. Meanwhile, the hearing students, instead of listening for the last word before raising their hands, are able to watch for the Deaf interpreter to finish the interpretation and answer quickly, together.

As another example, in a math class, the Deaf interpreter switches from lecture-style interpreting (teacher addressing the entire class) to workstation interpreting. Whenever a student needs sight-translation, it would be offered as the teacher went around the room answering student questions about the same text material they were looking at. If there is more than one Deaf student in the class, the Deaf interpreter functions as an audience interpreter if the students are sitting in different places in the classroom and are unable to see each other because they are working in separate groups.

Teaming in K–12 settings requires classroom management skills in a way that is not often discussed. Interpreters are not responsible for any student behavior management, but rather for managing the information exchanged in the classroom, especially managing the timing of the information given as well as making connections between comments. This management can increase cognitive load demands for processing information. Even if the interpreters are doing consecutive interpreting in a biology class, there are simultaneous tasks that require simultaneous processing during class, such as a video shown in class on birds and migration. In these instances, Deaf interpreters have used sight-translation by interpreting for the movie directly from the English captions. People who are concerned about the delays that come with sharing academic content through two interpreters find it is often not the case because the Deaf interpreter expedites the process by reducing student confusion in the first rendering of the message.

Successful classroom management with a team requires time to learn the strengths and the challenges of the team, and so it is preferable that the same two interpreters are used for the same class rather than rotating them. In some instances, hearing interpreters will have to rotate, so it is important for the Deaf interpreter to be able to work with a number of hearing interpreters to keep that component constant. In addition to being in the classroom during breaks, the Deaf interpreter, on request, functions as a consultant for the education team to access Deaf-based academic resources to better support their students. They also act as an ASL resource for the hearing interpreters by working together on uncommon words and phrases for a signed counterpart.

How the Deaf/hearing interpreter team works with teachers is also important. Although interpreters are often gladly welcomed, there are teachers who forget that an interpreter is present and may block the view of the interpreter. Some teachers use few visual materials, but there are others who add supplemental visuals to their lessons. One of the most important interpreter–teacher conversations to be had, however, is around whether the Deaf student needs to know the vocabulary for an upcoming test, or whether it is more important that they understand the concepts. It helps the interpreting team to prepare their interpretation in accordance with the teacher’s lesson outcomes. It helps for the Deaf interpreter to know what the teacher would highlight for the students and to make that culturally explicit in their interpretation, while not overly explaining or taking on the role of the teacher. The role of the Deaf/hearing interpreter team is to act as language exchangers in a way that builds a rapport between the teacher and the student. The teacher must know the strengths and challenges that their student has with the academic content so they can modify their teaching. Likewise, the student must know the teacher’s expectations for them so they can modify how they learn.

The Deaf Interpreter Inside the Classroom

In schools, there are various scenarios where a Deaf interpreter is placed as a classroom interpreter in a mainstream classroom along with a hearing interpreter, hearing teacher, and peers. Deaf interpreters are also placed in a self-contained classroom where the Deaf student is taught by a teacher of Deaf students in place of, or in support of, academic instruction with other peers. In a mainstream classroom where there is only one Deaf student, the Deaf/hearing interpreting team focuses exclusively on the needs of that one Deaf student with or without the presence of the teacher of the Deaf working with that student.

The classroom Deaf interpreter typically works with the team for the entire duration of the school day, taking turns with interpreting and monitoring roles. As Bentley-Sassaman and Dawson (2012) write, “[T]he process of working in a Deaf-hearing interpreting team is more complex than in a team of hearing interpreters” (p. 3). The hearing interpreter interprets what they hear in their native (spoken) language into a form of ASL, and the Deaf interpreter interprets that message to the student in a language form that is most comprehensible and/or accessible to the Deaf student. Alternately, the Deaf interpreter interprets what they see in their native language into a form of ASL that best meets the comprehension of the hearing interpreter, who then interprets that content into English. They also monitor each other and negotiate meaning with each other and with the Deaf students.

Bentley-Sassaman and Dawson (2012) describe this well: “The hearing and the Deaf interpreters have to monitor one another constantly to ensure that both the hearing client and the deaf client understand the interpretations and that the clients’ messages are being conveyed clearly and accurately” (p. 1). In schools with several educational interpreters, the team rotates to pair the Deaf interpreter with a different team member by class subject or in shifts. Educational interpreters that keep the same interpreting team for each subject require less preparation time on a day-to-day basis. This is because the interpreting team is able to maintain the flow of prior classroom knowledge and integrate the new information being taught. Marschark et al. (2005) note that “this [steady] interaction gives students and interpreters an opportunity to become familiar with each other’s signing styles and skills, informs interpreters about student interpreting preferences, and establishes rapport that can support communication and learning” (p. 41). The educational interpreting team uses the ongoing experience from these interactions to modify their interpretation as appropriate.

When there are two or more Deaf students, the Deaf/hearing interpreting team has to find the best sign language range that meets most of the needs for most of the Deaf students. Educational interpreters place emphasis on fingerspelled vocabulary along with its accompanying sign to allow the Deaf student to optimize literacy and vocabulary development (Boys Town National Research Hospital, n.d.-c). Other strategies include signing some information twice—in two different forms. For example, one Deaf/hearing interpreter team was working with two foreign Deaf students—one was exposed to American Sign Language for a few years, whereas the other had only arrived in the United States a few months earlier—and knew only their native sign language (no exposure to ASL yet on arrival at school). The Deaf interpreter would first interpret the content into the student’s first language and then reinterpret the content in ASL for the other student who was waiting. This process provided a unique opportunity for the first student to learn ASL while the second student absorbed the ASL interpretation. The newer student would also be taking formal ASL instruction to support their new language acquisition outside of the interpreted classes. By the end of the year, the Deaf interpreter was able to go to an ASL interpretation with fewer instances of clarifying in the first student’s native sign language. At some point, the Deaf interpreter would only interpret in an ASL form that met the needs of both Deaf students in the same classroom.

In the self-contained classroom, the Deaf interpreter often works alone without a hearing interpreter, and interprets for the teacher of Deaf students who may not have the language skills that are readily understood by the students. Alternately, there are situations where the teacher of Deaf students may not understand the student because of their physical disability or foreign-language background. A Deaf interpreter is advantageous if there are multiple Deaf students to teach with only one teacher of the Deaf available to teach the same content in various ways. However, if there is a nonsigning visitor or a new student using spoken language in the self-contained classroom, the Deaf/hearing interpreting team would be needed. In instances where a Deaf interpreter is working all day in a self-contained classroom, it is ideal to have a team of Deaf interpreters working together, akin to the model of two hearing interpreters for a full school day.

The Deaf Interpreter Outside of the Classroom

The Deaf interpreter is also used in other venues in the school setting such as assemblies in the auditorium, school productions, field trips, and extracurricular activities. There are three particular ways the Deaf interpreter is used: as a platform interpreter, an audience interpreter, and a relay interpreter.⁵

In schools using the Deaf interpreter as a platform interpreter, they are placed on the stage to interpret for the speaker. In some instances, because of the rapid delivery, Deaf/hearing interpreter teams tend to include two hearing interpreters with one or more Deaf interpreters. Both hearing interpreters are placed in the audience in the line of sight of the Deaf interpreter, and collect a main concept chunk (like one would with consecutive interpreting) to feed the Deaf interpreter information in turns—Interpreter A feeds chunk one as the Deaf interpreter works on chunk one; Interpreter B feeds chunk two to the Deaf interpreter; and Interpreter A is monitoring as she gets chunk three. This ensures that there is a third interpreter monitoring the active Deaf/hearing interpreter pair. This turn-taking chunk method between the two hearing interpreters and one Deaf interpreter often helps reduce not only processing time but also interpreting errors. This is optimal for schools that have a large pool of educational interpreters working with Deaf students. Again, schools now note that more students can access the output of a Deaf interpreter than they do from a hearing interpreter because of the ease of receiving information from a native signer. Often, this type of native-level interpreting team is not considered intrusive to other students who typically don’t use a Deaf interpreter but rather beneficial to them. There are exceptions, such as a Deaf interpreter working with a foreign-born student using a communication system that works only for the both of them. This can create a narrower audience benefit as this shared language between the interpreter and the student is not commonly used by other peers. In those cases, schools should hire more Deaf interpreters.

Conversely, an upbeat school-wide talent show, for example, is where the Deaf interpreter may be able to include more Deaf-oriented artistry and other playful language in the interpretation to match the genres that appear in the show. This fosters equal creative language exposure for Deaf students just like their hearing peers are receiving. Even if the school does not have a Deaf interpreter on staff, there are circumstances like this where a Deaf interpreter should be contracted specifically for these types of school events. Deaf interpreters are also used in IEP and other meetings within the school, particularly those involving legal situations. For example, reporting of sexual harassment, interviews with the school resource officer about a school incident, or an investigation by the Department of Human and Health Services. For such scenarios, it is always best practice to use a legal team of Deaf and hearing interpreters, particularly where young minors are concerned, though preferably not the same Deaf and hearing interpreters used in the student’s everyday classrooms so as to allow the student a sense of impartiality.

The Deaf interpreter also functions as an audience interpreter⁶ to ensure that the signed comments from the Deaf students are visible to all those who are facing the front and are unable to turn around and see the Deaf person’s comments. In audience interpreting, the affect and language choices reflect the person who is signing so as to be recognizable in the words the speaker has chosen and how they are feeling, rather than an interpretation discerning for meaning. Often, Deaf interpreters join the hearing interpreter team solely in the role of an audience interpreter on or off stage. The Deaf interpreter acts as a support monitor for the hearing interpreter team when not engaged in interpreting themselves.

Also, if the student/s are DeafBlind, it is possible to arrange seating to ensure everyone can access what they need for tactile or close vision interpreting, and, typically, the Deaf interpreter will not be in the role of a platform interpreter for that reason. They will be using sight-translation, audience interpreting, and other interpreting techniques that make visual information and academic content tactilely accessible to the DeafBlind student.

Some Deaf students require more than traditional educational interpreting. These include students who have significant language barriers, have severe learning disabilities, or have a traumatic brain injury and do not benefit from the typical educational interpreting services. Traditionally and unofficially, many of their paraprofessionals or teachers’ aides fulfilled the role of a person who provided clarification by signing the content in a different way and/or provided supplemental props like visuals, or provided an academic presentation of the same concepts. Often, these paraprofessionals actually function similarly to a Deaf interpreter. However, the Deaf interpreter is better able to adjust their language and how it aligns with the Deaf student’s worldview. All of this comes from a phenomenological experience of what it is like to see the world through Deaf eyes, in the culturally and visually oriented ways information is collected, assessed, and then processed.

Reports From Stakeholders Who Use Deaf Interpreters in Schools

Deaf students report, after having used Deaf interpreters, that they tell the hearing interpreters, teachers, and parents about how much easier it is to understand what is going on in their classroom, and some Deaf students specifically request the inclusion of Deaf interpreters in their IEP as part of their academic support mandate.

Most hearing interpreters reported feeling “less stressed” and “relieved” when working with a Deaf interpreter, because the overall academic “accessibility in the ways they [the Deaf student] understand” has greatly improved. Two specific interviews with hearing interpreters in different states reported feeling a loss from no longer having a Deaf interpreter available to work with them. One hearing interpreter reported, after a Deaf interpreter left the district, that she no longer had “a full team” when working with the students and was concerned about the fact that “it was the only deaf adult role model” that the student had in their life.

Deaf interpreters report that they were unsure where the “line was between expanding and teaching” and when to flag the teacher, or when it was their job to “interpret it differently.” They also reported that “having a background in teaching really helps me understand what the teacher wanted so I could interpret it better.” Over half of the Deaf interpreters working in public schools reportedly already have some form of teaching experience; for instance, in a college teaching ASL or as a teachers’ aide, and believe that working in K–12 settings required some teaching experience. After numerous positive reports from two schools that used Deaf interpreters in a pilot program, the district hired six more Deaf interpreters to work in their schools.

Professional development opportunities are available for Deaf/hearing interpreting teams placed in educational settings. Training is one safe way for educational interpreters to play with various interpretations of academic content without compromising Deaf student success. Training also furthers efforts to develop skills for classroom information management and to learn how to strategize various “feed” types in any given moment, on top of real-world application with students under the guidance of an experienced trainer.

School administrators have overcome challenges that a whole team is “out of budget” by calculating that the offset costs of bringing in more auxiliary aides for the student such as physical therapists, speech-language professionals, and paraprofessionals are far higher than those of utilizing the Deaf/hearing interpreting team as a proactive measure for an attainable education. Research advocates for Deaf/hearing interpreting teams as the most effective for more situations and demographics because a clearer interpreted message actually saves time in the long run. Thus, the number of Deaf/hearing teams placed in schools is growing faster than ever. Although, in other instances, schools that want to use a native-user approach, may have an issue with the small number of Deaf interpreters available in their area. There may be none at all, or they might be available but unprepared for work in a classroom. Additionally, a Deaf interpreter might be available only on specific days or times during the school week. However, these challenges are not insurmountable—particularly given the benefits for Deaf students. These schools can hire consultants to provide training in their area.

Conclusion

Language deprivation is a real and significant issue for Deaf students. Deaf interpreters are the best answer to that issue. As Kegl et al. (2005) note,

to the initial restriction of Deaf interpreters to working with individuals who exhibit limited language skills, a stigma had been attached to requesting Deaf interpreters. Deaf consumers felt that asking for a Deaf interpreter was equivalent to admitting an ASL deficiency. Slowly, as a direct result of Deaf interpreters themselves demanding native language services, the realization that Deaf/Hearing teams can offer native level interpretation to all Deaf consumers has begun to take hold. Slowly more and more Deaf consumers are requesting Deaf interpreters and more and more hearing interpreters are requesting Deaf team members. (p. 17)

As the native-user approach becomes more common as a form of equitable interpreting for linguistic minority groups within the schools, it becomes important for hearing interpreters working in K–12 settings to proactively talk to their schools. They are a resource in determining how to place a Deaf interpreter. Smith (2015) adds the following comment:

Clearly defining the job tasks of Deaf interpreters may aid in reducing the resistance of Hearing interpreters in requesting and working with DIs [Deaf interpreters], and a skills inventory certainly would be useful in developing educational and training curricula to advance the burgeoning DI population. (p. 5)

In other words, a Deaf interpreter is there to complete the educational team as part of a student-centered, native-user approach, with mutual respect to the hearing interpreter as an equal member of the whole interpreting team. Together, they are a native-level interpreting team. Although this may seem like a new frontier, it is extremely beneficial to all involved. After all, how did Deaf interpreters become what they are? Deaf interpreters have proved to be exactly what many schools need to resolve dilemmas with Deaf students’ educational needs, and all schools have a right to this natural resource—a native-user approach.

Author’s Note

Regan Thibodeau’s research began in 2016 and is currently ongoing with the goal of publishing mixed-results data findings in Professional Deaf Interpreters in K–12 Settings: A Handbook. She currently consults with schools in the United States about the placement of Deaf interpreters, and provides training for deaf/hearing teams in K–12 settings as well as monthly webinars.

Notes

1.“Deaf students” is an inclusive term that may include the following types of students as well: DeafBlind student, dual sensory student, Deafplus student, hard of hearing student, Deaf foreign-born, ASL monolingual, bilingual (can include children of Deaf adults), cued speech user, and, finally, a hearingplus student (may be nonverbal).

2.“Native-user approach” is defined in this chapter as a paradigm that includes the specific lived experience of a Deaf childhood and adolescence (commonly known in the interpreting profession as the “DELK” for the extralinguistic knowledge a Deaf interpreter has), a visual-world orientation, and a near-native to native language proficiency.

3.A Deaf interpreter is a professional interpreter that experiences deafness and has a visually oriented worldview. Owing to the moratorium, certification was not possible for several years, and thus for this chapter, the term “Deaf interpreters” implies both certified and those who are professionally trained to be Deaf interpreters (https://rid.org/rid-credentialing-moratorium-faq/).

4.For example, a DeafBlind student using Protactile ASL.

5.Relay interpreting is sometimes referred to as “indirect interpreting.” During relay interpreting, the interpreter listens to the source language speaker and renders the message into a language common to all the other interpreters. These other interpreters then render the message to their target language groups.” https://www.accreditedlanguage.com/interpreting/what-is-relay-interpreting/

6.Further information about Deaf interpreters working as audience interpreters can be found at https://asnwonline.com/use-of-a-certified-deaf-interpreter/.

References

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Boys Town National Research Hospital. (n.d.-b). Classroom interpreters–What does an educational interpreter do? https://www.classroominterpreting.org/Interpreters/role/index.asp

Boys Town National Research Hospital. (n.d.-c). Make appropriate use of fingerspelling. https://www.classroominterpreting.org/Interpreters/role/fingerspelling.asp

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