Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency 2015/16 show 1,105 students undertaking a first degree (full-time and part-time) who identified as ‘deaf’ or with a ‘serious hearing impairment’.
Deaf students studying in HE requiring additional support can access funds via Disabled Students Allowances (DSA). Interpreting support for deaf students in HE falls under the heading ‘Non-Medical Helper’ (NMH) including also specialist note-taking (manual or electronic) and English support.
Since April 2016, those providing NMH support for new students have had to be registered with Disabled Students Allowances Quality Assurance Group (DSA-QAG) and meet the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) which outlines the mandatory qualifications and roles for NMH. The positive (and there is only one!) is the framework states that interpreters must be either fully qualified or regulated as TSLIs, thus avoiding the use of level three ‘signers’. The fundamental problems concern the quality of the service and lack of choice for Deaf students.
Prior to the changes, Deaf students or universities could select interpreters to provide the support, thus giving deaf students some element of choice to use their preferred interpreters.
Now, agencies register with DSA-QAG, stipulating their fees. A DSA needs assessor must then find two price quotes from the DSA-QAG database, and the cheapest provider will be chosen to support that student.
The agency becomes the sole provider and problems arise when they are unable to provide interpreters with the specific attributes or enough interpreters to meet the demands of the student’s timetable.
The DSA-QAG registration process, with the need to meet their terms and conditions and regulations, is simply unworkable for freelancers – I’m not aware of any interpreters who have registered in a sole-trader capacity. This has a huge impact on the choice and quality of support a Deaf student receives.
One Deaf student described to me their frustration that no interpreting support was in place at the start of their university course in September 2016. For a short time a regular pool of freelance interpreters were used.
“The freelancers had made my time at university enjoyable as the quality of interpreting was high. I got more involved and my confidence grew and grew.”
However, the student was later informed the interpreting support would be provided via an agency. The student explained the interpreters lacked the sign language skills to interpret into BSL, resorting to using Signed English (signs following English word order) and were ‘struggling’ with the lecture content.
“… my learning experience went downhill from there on. I went through 3-4 agencies throughout the year. .. I became more withdrawn and lost confidence in my uni work. I couldn’t trust the interpreters to translate for me, nor did I enjoy their interpreting.”
The lack of consistency in support and lack of choice can only have a negative impact on Deaf students. We must not forget, the current university fees of approximately £9,000 per year also means students experiencing these issues are paying for a course they potentially cannot fully access, unable to achieve their potential, missing out on the university experience or withdrawing from their course (a consideration mentioned by a current student).
The DSA-QAG system is not working for interpreters, Deaf students and many agencies. Interpreting in HE is challenging and interpreting support should be about choice and quality, not which agency puts forward the lowest fee.
References:
DSA-QAG NMH Framework Document
https://www.dsa-qag.org.uk/practitioner/nmh-providers-1/nmh-framework-document
HESA Students and graduates
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students
Frances Lewin qualified as a BSL / English interpreter in 2001 and works in London.
Bobs
June 2, 2017
Great article of current issues.
Martin McLean
June 2, 2017
I work for National Deaf Children’s Society on education policy. We are aware of this issue with the DSA support registration system which is putting off BSL interpreters (and possibly other forms of support) from working in higher education. We have raised the issue with civil servants. However, we need case studies to be able to provide evidence that there has been a negative impact.
If you or someone you know has been affected by these changes please email us: campaigns@ndcs.org.uk
CP Stevenson
June 5, 2017
As a freelance assessor I am very concerned about the dilemma of getting quotes for interpreting support without any assurance of quality. The low cost per hour quoted by some agencies cannot possibly mean they use appropriately qualified interpreters, and therefore Deaf students are being completely disadvantaged.
Frances Lewin
June 8, 2017
I’m interested to know why the comment from the agency has been removed?!?
Editor
June 8, 2017
Hi Frances, they asked for their own comment to be removed, I do honour that when people make that kind of request, although I’d have also preferred the comment to stay on the site. Thanks, Charlie
@view
June 8, 2017
Very interesting article. I work in secondary school education and it is difficult to find qualified interpreters who want to work at schools for less than their average pay rate. This means our Deaf pupils suffer by not having full access provision of qualified interpreters.