Many people don’t understand the importance of Certified Deaf Interpreters or even Deaf Interpreters that aren’t certified. What are they good for and why would the community want to have these people work for us? In this 9 minute video, Jesse Conrad a resident of Southern Florida shares examples of oppression from the interpreting community.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyDYPcWIzDw]
Not only are CDIs being oppressed, their clients and even hearing interpreters are being oppressed through the process by agencies. Some hearing interpreters understand or have experienced situations where they truly felt unqualified to work with the client because they couldn’t understand them or felt like there wasn’t enough common ground for the interpreter to give the client everything they needed to be successful in that particular situation.
They have spoken to their agency and told them the situation and in turn the agency says, “NO” to the interpreter. This is taking away jobs from CDIs and also taking away the rights of the client. There are interpreter agencies all over America that practices this. The next question here is to determine what to do next and how the deaf community can push for a change in the interpreting community. Demand removal of oppressive behaviors and oppressors that aren’t willing to change.
Find out what Jesse says further and suggests! Remember that CDIs is a way of employment for people within our community and when employers allow oppressive behavior towards them or practices oppression then that means they aren’t true supporters.
