Deaf News: Census of sign language interpreters show just 8 percent come from ethnic minorities

Researchers have warned of a “danger” that sign language interpreting could become “further institutionalised as a white profession” if action isn’t taken to change the proportion of ethnically diverse people working in the role.

The comments from academics at Heriot-Watt, Wolverhampton and West of Scotland universities follow the publication of a census of sign language interpreters and translators, funded by the Association of Sign Language Interpreters (ASLI).

Almost 90% of respondents (618 out of 690) identified as white, while only 8% said they were from an ethnic minority background.

“There has been a marginal increase in the number of SLTIs [sign language translators and interpreters] from ethnic minorities into the profession, but not in sufficient numbers to lead to an appropriately diverse professional profile.

“This may be due to a number of factors including that potential SLTIs do not see enough ethnic diversity within amongst existing interpreters and interpreter educators to attract them into the profession. But there is a danger that the SLTI profession will become further institutionalised as a white profession if steps are not taken to actively change this profile.

“Although active recruitment of Black interpreters is needed, particular effort should be made to recruit more interpreters from Asian and other ethnic minority backgrounds. A specific mentorship system could also support more interpreters from ethnic minorities into high-status work,” the report reads.

The Interpreters of Colour Network (IOCN) have been approached by The Limping Chicken for comment.

Academics also go on to add that the “typical profile” of an SLTI practitioner is a 44-year-old straight white hearing woman, who is also self-employed with caring responsibilities and registered with both the National Register of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind people (NRCPD) and ASLI.

Other findings from the census include more than 30% of British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters saying that they are “unwilling” to provide their services for religious events, with over half (51%) saying they had ‘no religion’ and a third (38%) identifying as Christian.

The percentage has been described as “worrying” by researchers, who fear that this “may impact on the British deaf community’s access to practising their faiths”.

Other areas which interpreters said they would be “unwilling” to cover include TV in-vision interpreting (56%), musical events (44%), political events (42%) and theatre (37%).

The authors did, however, cite a higher proportion of LGBTQIA+ translators and interpreters compared to the wider population as “a positive story of representation”, with 14% of SLTIs identifying as a member of the community – a figure seven times higher than the Office for National Statistics’ 2.2% statistic for the UK population.

The report goes on to list 20 recommendations in its conclusion, which includes regulatory bodies such as the NRCPD and Regulatory Body of Sign Language Interpreters (RBSLI) requiring SLTIs to “evidence some level of engagement with diversity and inclusion issues”, as part of meeting their annual requirements for ‘continuing professional development’.

Another recommendation reads: “Key SLTI membership organisations […] and IOCN to work with […] BSL teachers, as well as representative deaf ethnic minorities organisations […] to target BSL classes and deaf community networks for recruitment from BSL learners/users from ethnic minorities.“

Representatives from stakeholder organisations are due to meet twice a year to review progress against the first 18 recommendations, including developments in student intakes registrations and membership profiles.

The report also confirms that ASLI censuses of the sign language interpreting and translation profession will take place every five years.

Researchers will be giving a presentation on the census report on Zoom, at 10am on 3 October, with registration for the event now open.

Photo: ASLI.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.

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Update – 15:00: In a statement in response to the findings, IOCN said that the 8% statistic is “not surprising” and supports research carried out by board member Akbar Sikder, who in 2019 estimated that between 6-9% of the interpreting population were people of colour.

Commenting on the census, Sikder – who contributed to the research – told The Limping Chicken: “IOCN is aware that more work needs to be done to diversify the SLI profession so that it is more representative of the multicultural society we live in. This is a huge undertaking that stems from a systemic problem and it will require the cooperation of all SLI stakeholders.

“IOCN welcomes the recommendations in the ASLI census to address issues with recruitment, education, outreach and marketing. There may also be culture-specific barriers within ethnic minority communities that prevent people of colour from considering SLI as a viable career.

“IOCN believes that representation and visibility are vital and we have been working with SLI practitioners to raise awareness of having diverse interpreting teams, particularly at high visibility/profile events. There is clearly much more work to be done, which will take time, money and patience to achieve.”

Nikki Harris, IOCN steering group member, added: “Active recruitment into our profession and marketing requires a clear strategy, resources and people to come together and work towards the common goals of increasing the number of people of colour in our profession, that will in the long run enrich our interpreting pool and better serve our deaf community.

Writing on Twitter, ASLI said: “Unfortunately this has proven what we suspected. This does now give us solid goals and targets to improve the diversity of the profession.”

Meanwhile, NRCPD have thanked everyone involved in the project for their work, and for the opportunity for the organisation to participate in the advisory group.

“One of NRCPD’s strategic aims is to develop the professions and we welcome the report’s recommendations and are fully committed to working with others to implement them,” they said.

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Update – 20:30: Speaking to The Limping Chicken, an ASLI spokesperson said the census was commissioned “in part” because of their “concerns about the diversity of the profession”.

The organisation also wanted to look at “future proofing”, with the “many” interpreters retiring in the next 10 to 15 years leaving gaps in specific regions.

“We engaged the universities as we wanted the research to be independent of ASLI which would also alleviate any concerns about the ethics of handling raw data.

“We now hope to work with other organisations to address the points raised by the census data and hope that it also opens up the opportunity for other research within the profession.

“This will be particularly interesting when compared to the National Census 2021, although Comparison with ONS figures shows similar percentages for some ethnic backgrounds – so the SLTI profession is representative for some areas but other intersectional characteristics are still under-represented,” they said.