Insight: The embarrassment of being poorly voiced-over by an interpreter and how it affected a huge career opportunity (BSL)

I am a deaf person, fortunate enough to enjoy a long and varied career in theatre and the arts. I am a BSL user and this is my first language. As a result, I rely on a strong working partnership with interpreters to ensure I am accurately represented and portrayed towards non-signers.

Some time ago I was given an amazing opportunity to be featured in both a prestigious newspaper and on a radio channel to publicise a show I was working in. A very well known hearing actor was also going to be there, which blew me away in excitement.

The problem – the interview was two days away and all of my preferred interpreters were unavailable.

I explained this to the PR team in the hope they would re schedule the interview but no, it had to go ahead.

I reluctantly agreed to work with another interpreter who admitted herself that she may not be the best person for the job, as she had never worked with me before and it was on such a huge platform. So there was lots of pressure.

We had no choice, however, and had to go through with it. I was very excited about the A-list actor who was going to be there and hoping I would make a good impression and make the most of the networking opportunity. 

As I was being interviewed, I felt something was off. Every time I explained myself, the interpreter went on and on for longer than they should, and from the look on everyone else’s faces I wasn’t sure they understood what I meant. I persevered through the interview, hoping it would still come across well.

Afterwards, my preferred interpreters told me they had listened to the radio and knew it didn’t sound like me at all. I read the newspaper piece and I was absolutely gutted. Gutted! None of my personality was there, it didn’t read like me and they had miscommunicated some of the important points I was trying to make. It just all sounded wrong!

It wasn’t totally incorrect, per se. But it wasn’t me!

The whole experience was a testament that having someone who knows your tone, your sayings, your ways, how you work – really matters when it comes to correct interpretation. 

This leaves me wondering why the PR team could not honour my wish to reschedule the interview so I could be appropriately and accurately represented by an interpreter? Why does everything have to be on their terms and leave the Deaf BSL user at a disadvantage?

Hearing actors are able to directly express themselves without the stress of being miscommunicated or misunderstood. Why do we have to live with an added burden? 

In this instance, I cannot blame the interpreter because she openly said it would be a challenge as we had never worked together and I knew we were being pushed to do the job on a certain date. It isn’t fair though, is it?

If hearing speakers had to rely on professionals to be their voice, I’m sure they would understand where I am coming from and perhaps change how things work. 

I have been too embarrassed to share the newspaper interview with my friends or the radio transcript with others I know, I would rather keep it under wraps because it is just completely and utterly embarrassing to read what I ‘apparently’ said. 

Being poorly voiced-over has implications for my career because it prevents me from fully expressing myself and responding to media questions properly. This means others will be less likely to want to work with me because I am not giving the best impression of myself. It was a huge opportunity that turned out to be a major disappointment.

It was a lesson learnt all round, though I think the main lesson is for the mainstream PR team who should be more flexible and willing to honour the needs of Deaf BSL users in future. 

This blog has been written anonymously as part of the Insight series where readers are invited to share their story or news about their interesting job with The Limping Chicken. If you have a story to share please email rebecca@rawithey.com

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