Frances Lewin: Interpreting support for Deaf students studying at university: Survey results

I’m doing a PhD at UCL Institute of Education looking at how sign language interpreting support is provided to Deaf students studying at university, and the experiences of Deaf students and interpreters.

The results I’m sharing here are the first part of my study. We all know Deaf students often have a lot of difficulties at university and our research project is looking at their sign language interpreting support.

There’s currently very little information about how interpreting support is provided and how Deaf students feel about their interpreting support. Therefore, the first part of this project was an information-gathering activity and we want to share some of the initial results.

Much of what we’ve found probably won’t surprise you, but we needed to collect the evidence to then move forward.

The project

This project is focussing on Deaf students who are studying at university now, who are in their 1st or 2nd year of a BA or BSc course, who use sign language interpreters or CSWs, and have interpreting support funded by Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA).

In June/July 2018, Deaf students were asked to complete an online survey. There’s too much information to explain all the results here, so we’ve selected to tell you about information and advice, and interpreting support. We’re writing a detailed report to share later.

We’ve also made some suggestions as to why the results may show something, but we need to look in more detail and the next step is to use case studies where we will ask a group of Deaf students for more information about their interpreting support.

A Freedom of Information request was made to the three funding bodies (Student Finance England, The Students Awards Agency Scotland, and The Education Authority Northern Ireland) to find out how many Deaf students were in their 1st or 2nd year and have DSA funding for interpreting support in the academic year 17/18.

Unfortunately, the information provided by these bodies does not allow us to calculate an exact number, but we believe there are fewer than 59 Deaf students with agreed funding for interpreting support. In this research study 14 Deaf students agreed to participate, so around 25% of the Deaf student group, which is an excellent response rate for studies of this type. We have 7 male and 7 female students. All of the students are studying full-time and all use sign language interpreters (none use CSWs).

Information and Advice

Students were asked if they had received advice about interpreting support before they started university (see table 1). Here, 9 students said they got advice from other deaf people who are or have been students, and 8 from friends. What’s interesting here is that there were changes to DSA funding in 2016 so the information they are getting from these sources might be outdated.

“At first I thought it would be straightforward as the former students made it out to be. But when I enrolled, there were changes made to DSA. So from then on, I couldn’t get any suitable advice from the former students anymore as the landscape had changed really, which was difficult as I relied on them for guidance.”

Table 1 Where do students get advice about interpreting support?(Students could select more than one option)

Source of advice	Number of Deaf Students
I didn’t receive any advice	1
Other deaf people who are or have been students	9
Friends	8
Disabled Students’ Allowance / Student Finance England	8
Parents / Family	4
British Deaf Association	0
Other: Interpreters	1

Interpreting support was something that 13 of the 14 students thought about when choosing their university. The student who said this was not something they thought about was also the student who did not receive any advice. In our thematic analysis of their comments the main theme identified was the need for more advice and information about interpreting support to be available.  One aim of this project is to set-up a website for Deaf students as an information hub so they can easily access information about DSA and the support they may need.

Interpreting Support

Next, students were asked if their interpreting support was in place at the beginning of the academic year in September / October 2017. Here, 8 out of 14 students said all their support was in place, 5 students said some, and one student said none of their interpreting support was in place. We now want to find out why for some students all their interpreting support was not in place – maybe there are fewer interpreters working in universities, or maybe there is an issue with funding, or both, or something else? We also ran a survey for interpreters so we’re going to compare the data from both surveys.

The Deaf students were then divided into two groups: students with a regular interpreter, and students without a regular interpreter. In this study, 10 students have a regular interpreter, and 4 students don’t have a regular interpreter. This division is important as we want to see if having regular support makes a difference to the students’ experience.

Here, students could select more than one answer (see table 2). For most students in this study, their interpreting support is provided via an agency and from what we know about the funding changes we expected this result. Of the 10 students who have a regular interpreter, 7 said the agency books a freelance interpreter and all 7 can choose which interpreter works with them.

This is really interesting as the raw data suggests the situation is working quite well, however the comments from students in the open-ended questions tell a different story. Although some students are able to choose their interpreters, they said the process is problematic, particularly when considering factors including their DSA budget and managing their timetable. One question we have for the case studies is how easily Deaf students can nominate their preferred interpreters when an agency provides their interpreting support. Some Deaf students have told us it is a very difficult and stressful process to get the interpreter(s) they want.

Table 2. How the interpreting support is provided

Interpreting provider	Students with a regular interpreter	Students without a regular interpreter
The agency book freelance interpreters	7	3
The university book freelance interpreters	1	2
The university book their own in-house team	1	0
I don’t know	1	0

Interestingly, none of the students in this study use CSWs and 7 of the 14 students are supported by registered qualified interpreters. In our other survey we want to find out what it’s like for interpreters who work in universities.

Next, we asked students about the interpreting (see table 3). Of the 10 students with a regular interpreter, 5 responded that they do feel the interpreter has enough knowledge of the subject they are interpreting to interpret well, and 5 said their interpreter sometimes has enough knowledge. All 4 students who don’t have a regular interpreter said their interpreter sometimes has enough knowledge of the subject.

It is very possible that inconsistency in support means interpreters are unfamiliar with terminology, unaware of agreed signs, and would lack knowledge from previous lecture discussions, therefore making the interpreting process more problematic. Again, this is something we want to explore with Deaf students and interpreters. It suggests that consistent support would work best. A positive finding is that none of the students said their interpreter doesn’t have enough knowledge.

Table 3 Does the interpreter have enough knowledge of the subject they are interpreting, to interpret well?

Response	Students with a regular interpreter	Students without a regular interpreter
Yes	5	0
Sometimes	5	4
No	0	0

Continuing the questions of satisfaction, students were asked if they feel the interpreter interprets clearly when working from spoken English to sign language (see table 4). Here, 8 of the 10 students with a regular interpreter answered yes, the interpreter interprets clearly which again might be expected for reasons previously explained. Again, for those students without a regular interpreter we see the response sometimes. These figures could again be evidence that having consistent support allows the interpreter to develop subject knowledge to interpret well and that being familiar with a subject allows for a clear interpretation.

Table 4 Does the interpreter interpret clearly when interpreting FROM spoken English to sign language?

Response	Students with a regular interpreter	Students without a regular interpreter
Yes	8	0
Sometimes	2	4
No	0	0

The questions then moved to ask students about when the interpreter interprets from sign language to spoken English (see table 5). Here, 5 students with a regular interpreter said yes they are confident in the interpretation, 4 said sometimes, and 1 responded I don’t know. Of the students without a regular interpreter 1 said they sometimes feel the interpreter interprets clearly when working from sign language to spoken English, and 3 said they are not confident.

Table 5 When the interpreter interprets what you sign into spoken English (voice-over), are you confident what they say matches what you have signed?

Response	Students with a regular interpreter	Students without a regular interpreter
Yes, I am confident	5	0
Sometimes I am confident	4	1
No, I am not confident	0	3
I don’t know	1	0

Students were then asked how happy they are generally with their interpreter’s interpreting skills (see table 6). Overall, the responses are positive, but again reflect a difference between the two groups of students. Of those with a regular interpreter, 4 said they are very happy, 5 are quite happy and one is not bothered. In contrast, none of the students without a regular interpreter said they are happy and their responses were split with 2 stating they are quite happy and 2 they are unhappy. Again, this highlights the need for consistency in interpreting support.

Table 6 How happy are you with your interpreter’s interpreting skills?

Response	Students with a regular interpreter	Students without a regular interpreter
Very Happy	4	0
Quite Happy	5	2
Unhappy	0	2
Not bothered	1	0

To conclude this area of questions, students were asked how they find organising their interpreting support (see table 7). These results are very concerning as 8 students responded negatively, with 5 students reporting it is worrying / stressful. We know university can be a difficult time, and students experiencing mental health issues has been raised as a societal concern. We’re keen to explore the issues surrounding interpreting support so that we have the evidence needed to make changes and avoid the difficulties and stress reported here.

Table 7 How do students find organising their interpreting support?

Responses	Number of Students
Very Easy	2
Easy	3
Neutral	1
Difficult	3
Worrying / Stressful	5

From our analysis of the comments from Deaf students to the open-ended questions, we created a thematic analysis of the main areas of concern. These will help us to form the questions for the case studies.

Final Thematic Map from the students’ comments to the open-ended questions

The findings from the survey of Deaf students raise important issues around advice and guidance, and interpreting support. Both are complex areas, raising issues including consistency, autonomy and awareness. We will keep you updated with the next stage of the project. In the meantime, please contact Frances with any comments or questions (f.lewin@ucl.ac.uk)

© Lewin (2019)