A US
INTERPRETERS AREN’T JUST ‘COOL’
LAN
When NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet took office in early October, he was accompanied in his first two press conferences by an Auslan interpreter. Familiar faces on our screens since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it has become standard for press conferences around Australia to include sign language interpreters to communicate important content to the Deaf Community. In his next two press conferences, however, these faces were absent. NSW Health later released a statement confirming that continuing media events concerning COVID ‘may include the services of Auslan interpreters and [some] may not’. This is devastating for the Deaf community. The increased visibility of Auslan interpreters has brought Auslan to the attention of the broader hearing community, with enrolment in Auslan courses increasing and several interpreters going viral. Whenever I tell people I’m in my third year of studying Auslan to become an interpreter, their first comment is often, “like the lady next to the premier!” The increased visibility of Auslan is undoubtedly a positive step, but when the Deaf community remains a marginalised group and interpreters on TV begin to disappear as we exit the pandemic, I worry this newfound interest is only a passing fad. Somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 people in Australia use Auslan. Auslan is an entirely separate language from English, with its own unique grammar. For example, if someone says, “Would you like lunch?”, an interpreter would sign, “lunch you want,” with their eyebrows raised to convey the question. It’s for this reason that subtitles cannot capture the emotion of a speaker nor convey information in the visual way Deaf people require, rendering interpreters vital. Additionally English is the
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Words by Gabby Bakker second or third language of many Deaf people, creating another barrier that further marginalises the Deaf community;especially when the language used in press conferences is formal and full of difficult terminology. Many hearing people’s first encounters with Auslan interpreters is at press conferences, however interpreters are present in many facets of the lives of Deaf people. Interpreters work at job interviews, family events, doctor’s appointments, and more… Interpreters around the world have gone viral and drawn mass attention for their presence at rap and metal concerts. This is not to say their work isn’t important and vital, but an obsession over interpreters betrays a worrying trend in hearing perceptions of the Deaf community. There’s something awfully uncomfortable about interpreters going viral just doing their jobs while Deaf people’s access to Auslan interpretation and to the language itself remains limited. There is no existing legislation to mandate interpreters at press conferences, and aside from these conferences, the news is rarely interpreted, let alone other television programs. The onus for booking an interpreter is also always put on a Deaf person themselves in the majority or scenarios, creating a significant mental load. Additionally, many deaf children born to hearing families are denied access to Auslan and the Deaf community in favour of oralist education that prioritises spoken English over signed language. We cannot fawn over how “cool” a hearing interpreter looks while they sign or how “into it” they may be at a music concert while Deaf people remain a marginalised group. Auslan is more than a trend or spectacle. Deaf advocates have raised concerns that after
