Nicky Evans: Why we are crowdfunding for a new interpreting cooperative

To support the Crowdfunder, click here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/signalisecoop

What is the Signalise Cooperative?

Signalise is a new cooperative which is being set up by deaf people and interpreters in Merseyside.

The area has experienced lots of problems with the way some interpreting services are provided (via government frameworks) and the communities needs aren’t being met.

We wanted to set up a business which is owned and controlled by its members – deaf people and interpreters, so we could change the way the current system works. 

Why I became involved in the cooperative

I hadn’t seen Jen Smith for a while, after having my twins and returning to work, we had only managed to meet up once or twice.

She invited me and fellow interpreter, Wes Mehaffy (who was instrumental in setting up and running NUBSLI (National Union of British Sign Language Interpreters), to lunch. I had the twins with me and whilst we were eating, she asked us what we thought about the idea of a cooperative.

This isn’t the first time we had spoken about a cooperative model, as when we established NUBSLI, we had talked about it in depth but had felt that it wasn’t the right time. Both Wes and I said that we thought it would be great to have one; we’d fallen into her trap! Very soon we were excitedly talking about how we could make this happen.

Interpreting and how it has changed during my career

When I first started training to be an interpreter (20 years ago), the world was a very different place. Local interpreting services were often provided by the local council or local agencies. The service largely knew all the interpreters on their lists and the deaf community had very close links with them.

If I was new to a booking, it was quite normal for the interpreter who had done it previously to call and have a chat. They would provide any information they thought would help with the assignment and also ensure they passed on any prep.

In the same way, I would call an interpreter if I had been the last interpreter to attend a booking to pass on information too. Less experienced interpreters would be given jobs with skilled interpreters who would offer support and guidance and, in my experience, were always very generous with their time. 

Bookings included time ahead of meetings or sessions, to allow you plenty of time to chat to the deaf person, co-worker and whoever was present. 

If any problems arose, there was always a senior/more experienced interpreter available to talk to and you were always in regular telephone contact with the service. The admin staff knew who worked well together and would always try to match the interpreter to the booking, to get the best person for the job. They would not only consider your interpreting skills and expertise in the domain but your interpersonal skills too. 

This meant that the deaf person was getting a service where they didn’t need to explain the booking and could be confident that the interpreter would arrive fully prepared and able to meet their needs. 

Local deaf people knew the interpreters and we were all part of the same community. 

Roll on 10 years

Over the past 10 years, this model has largely (with the exception of one or two agencies) disappeared. Price now dictates everything. Jobs are sent out, often in list form, without any detailed information. 

(Example of the information interpreters receive. Hospital appointment – how do you know if it’s for brain surgery or someone having their toenails cut?).

This makes it very difficult, particularly for newly qualified or trainee interpreters to know whether or not they are suitable for a booking. We are led to believe that the fastest response with the lowest fee, gets the booking and interpreters are under pressure to accept a booking without really knowing if it is within their skillset. I really do feel for the newer interpreters coming through who, when compared to how well I was supported, are largely being left to make their own way. 

Why would I want to support a tech-based service? 

Given what I have just explained, you may be wondering why I want to support a service that is largely automated, and everything is done online?

Whilst we want to use tech based solutions to the booking of services, we want to be able to design the service so it operates in the ways I described earlier;  where deaf people can choose their interpreters, where there is support for newer interpreters, where we can provide the information that interpreters need before agreeing to taking on a new assignment. How will we do this? By working using a cooperative model, where all the members (both deaf people and interpreters) can work together to ensure that everyone’s needs are met. 

What is a cooperative? https://youtu.be/miQ8fUP6Ayw (Tessa Padden clip)

Being a cooperative, means that any profit we make can be reinvested into the business and we (the members) can decide how it is spent.

We could provide additional training or mentoring to improve interpreting standards, we could train frontline staff, wherever possible we would make sure that any money we spent on training would go to deaf businesses and remain in the local area.

We could develop ideas that would create long lasting social change (such as developing full out of hours access). The possibilities are endless!

What is happening now? 

Since establishing Signalise, we have been really busy! Most of our work has been around the governance and legal structures of the coop, ensuring we can meet the strict criteria of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and applying for funding to help us meet the development costs of the platform. We have achieved a lot and are working really hard to develop a prototype which we can start testing with the local community. 

On Monday 21st September, we launched a Crowdfunder. We are doing this, as since Covid-19, it has become really clear that we need to include VRS as a service now (we had planned to look at this after we launched our face to face service but have changed our plans). The Crowdfunder will help to fund clinical grade remote interpreting software. This will allow us to start trading and offering VRS in the very near future. 

To support the Crowdfunder, click here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/signalisecoop

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