Does Social Networking Impair Sign Language Interpreter Ethics?
Social media and online behavior is a fact of life in the 21st Century. Wing Butler provides insight on the topic and challenges sign language interpreters to participate in the evolution of the RID Code of Professional Conduct.
The distance between our physical world and the virtual world of social media often invites behavior one would never project in real life. This virtual world introduces a whole new context of social norms and acceptable personal expression. Unfortunately, it appears in many cases that sign language interpreters appear to lack an awareness of the impact of social networking expression on their careers. What’s more, when you combine this lack of awareness with the view that the right to self-expression precedes all obligations, the result is an ethical distortion that undermines the sanctity of the relationship interpreters have with the D/deaf community.
The Ethical Distortion of Social Media
A large part of a sign language interpreter’s skillset is a keen situational awareness that is guided by ethical standards intended to protect consumers, the integrity of the profession, and allow the interpreting process to flow unobstructed.
This professional skillset blends with our personal image and influences how we conduct ourselves publically, even off the clock. Because we identify so strongly with the tangibility of our physical space, what we call “real life,” the consequences of our behavior and personal expression are easy to identify. As a result, we are more easily able to avoid potential conflict.
Unfortunately, the cognitive distance between our physical world and the virtual world combined with this lack of awareness of the impact of social networking expression creates an illusion that impairs a sign language interpreter’s situational awareness. This impairment leads to a distorted view and understanding of what is ethically acceptable online. Sadly, the result is a large number of interpreters who are unaware that some of their social networking activity is a breach of their professional ethics.
The 4 Symptoms of Distortion
Because online communication mirrors our real world experience, identifying the 4 primary symptoms of a social networking induced distortion offers clarity on potential ethical missteps.
The following content is being used to exemplify the symptoms of ethical distortion and to elicit our reaction to them within the framework of our ethical obligations as sign language interpreters.
Symptom 1: The interpreter prioritizes the right of online self-expression above ethical responsibilities.
Symptom 2: The interpreter believes their social media page is an intimate private space.
Symptom 3: The interpreter assumes that only close friends, familiar with their personal circumstances, view them online. Notwithstanding the regular practice of “Googling” someone to obtain a character reference.
Symptom 4: The Interpreter views digital content as temporary. They fail to understand that digital content, particularly images, will remain forever.
When interpreters telegraph opposing political opinions, an emotional disposition, or intimate windows into their personal life, it may lead to reasons for incompatibility with the consumer, and thus the assignment. You may have noticed in the comment section of Brandon Arthur’s post, How do Sign Language Interpreters Increase Opportunity in a Weak Economy?, Lucky expresses concern about the social networking activities of sign language interpreters.
This illusion induced ethical impairment is, and will be, responsible for an increasing amount of professional suicides among members of the sign language interpreting profession.
How Do We Intervene?
The premise of the Code of Professional Conduct (CPC) by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) was crafted to offer professional interpreters a behavioral compass of sorts. Clearly, the authors of this compass weren’t considering the impacts of social media when it was drafted. Having said that, in my view, any attempt to use the CPC as currently written to gauge the ethical boundaries of the intersection of social networking expression and sign language interpreter ethics will likely leave you scratching your head.
To answer the invite inconspicuously stated in the CPC, “This Code of Professional Conduct is a working document that is expected to change over time … [RID] members are encouraged to recommend changes for future updates.” Perhaps, we should consider adding an 8th tenet to the CPC to specifically address the ethical behavior displayed by sign language interpreters as a result of the proliferation of social media.
While this proposed addition to the CPC is not perfect, your feed is welcome and encouraged Note, the proposed tenet below is modeled after the American Medical Association’s Policy on social media.
Tenet 8: Interpreters Conduct Themselves Professionally Online
The Internet has created the ability for sign language interpreters and the sign language community to communicate and share information quickly and with millions of people easily. Participating in social networking and other similar Internet opportunities can support interpreter’s personal expression, enable individual interpreters to have a professional presence online, foster collegiality and camaraderie within the profession, provide opportunity to widely disseminate industry related information and community-centric messages and other valuable communication. Social networks, blogs, and other forms of communication online also pose new challenges to the relationship between interpreters and their consumers. Interpreters should weigh a number of considerations when maintaining a presence online:
8.1 Interpreters should be cognizant of the standards of consumer privacy and confidentiality that must be maintained in all environments, including online, and must refrain from posting identifiable assignment information online.
8.2 When using the Internet for social networking, interpreters should use privacy settings to safeguard personal information and content to the extent possible, but should realize that privacy settings are not absolute and that once on the Internet, content is likely there permanently. Thus, interpreters should routinely monitor their own Internet presence to ensure that their personal and professional information on their own sites and, to the extent possible, content posted about them by others, is accurate and appropriate.
8.3 If they interact with the D/deaf community on the Internet, interpreters must appropriately maintain the boundaries of the interpreter-consumer relationship in accordance with ethical guidelines within the CPC, just as they would in any other context.
8.4 To maintain appropriate professional boundaries interpreters should consider separating personal and professional content online.
8.5 When interpreters see content posted by colleagues that appear unprofessional they have a responsibility to bring that content to the attention of the individual, so that he or she can remove it and/or take other appropriate action. If the behavior significantly violates professional norms and ethical standards and the individual does not take appropriate action to resolve the situation, the interpreter should refer to the EPS (Ethical Practices System) to file a complaint.
8.6 Interpreters must recognize that actions and content posted online may negatively affect their reputations among consumers and colleagues, may have negative consequences for their interpreting careers, and can undermine the public trust in the sign language interpreting profession.
8.7 Interpreters must recognize that the sign language community is a highly compact demography with significant bias to overcome. Therefore greater responsibility and sensitivity on the interpreter’s impact to community culture and consumers is necessary.
Again, feel free to share feedback on Tenet 8 above.
Pause Before You Post
As we wait on the time needed to see industry practices evolve to address current working realities, consider what follows as a guide for staying in bounds when you express yourself online.
First, try the “elevator test.” You can do this by simply imagining that if you verbalized your post in a crowded elevator would it be considered unprofessional or call your ethics into question?
Second, make sure you can answer yes to the following questions:
1) I have removed identifying assignment information from my post?
2) Are my privacy settings on?
3) Have I considered the professional and ethical impact of this post?
4) Am I following the same ethical rules I would in the “real world?”
Personal Accountability
With the quickening dog years of technology and the increasing convergence of our on-and-offline lives, it is imperative that sign language interpreters are armed with modern day tools and know-how and guidance. We need to work to ensure these tools are present in order to raise the bar in our online behavior and deepen the credibility of the industry.
Because professional ethics are the bedrock of the sign language interpreting profession, we should be asking ourselves what actions can be taken to reinforce the ethical position of sign language interpreters.
What can you do?
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59 Comments on "Does Social Networking Impair Sign Language Interpreter Ethics?"
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Well said!
This is why my facebook profile is set to private and the coordinators are set to limited profile. I use facebook more as a blog to repost links and political commentary that I find interesting. Because I’m never sure who would be offended by some of my views, if I am unsure, I set it so they can only see my profile picture and that’s it. My actual friends can still see my posts.
Oops. Quite, not quit.
And, thanks, Jon. 🙂
Tamara,
I certainly agree that the healthy debriefing you describe is absolutely critical to our professional growth. Identifying the value derived in offline and online conversations should help us choose the appropriate venue for professional development.
Not only do I think about what I post but who posts on my wall. Do the friends and relationships you have on Facebook reflect on you professionally? This has crossed my mind since I have a variety of family and friends who are not involved in my professional life that at times post things that are frankly embarrassing. I have gone in and filtered out some of the contacts but I would like to know more about your professional opinion on this topic.
I completely agree. I love meeting people and seeing different places and be involved in a variety of scenarios. The humanity of what we do as interpreters is crucial. We are not CONDUITS. No, the Deaf do not need our help but it is very comforting to have someone who they can trust in a variety of ways. By using social media in the way that you have indicated, Win, it corrodes that trust. And, as interpreters, hasn’t it been difficult enough to obtain it?
It’s nice to hear someone admit mistakes. I too have posted things in regret and have had to apologize for them and/or delete them. I then spend the next year agonizing over how “bad” i am (no joke). I think that is what is often missing in these discussions. I think often times interpreters are afraid to admit fault because of the shame and judgement they may feel is coming their way, and it prevents them from fixing their mistakes and just moving on.
HI there Harrison,
I commend you for applying the information you have learned. More impressive is the corrective work you’ve done to repair relationships and align your your current online presence.
I have certainly struggled with adding a tenant, or blend within the current framework and I can see its value whichever way. Either way, the current CPC could use a modern day application.
i completly agree wing welll said …. i see this often and i am shocked sometimes with the things i read so i hope rid will take action and make this stop .
Dan,
Good call.
In writing the article the thought of adding context to the CPC to include online ethics, supported by illustrative behavior sub-tenants, did cross my mind. I thought that by separating the content to an 8th tenant would allow for clearer discussion on the necessary principles and elements of ethical online behavior.
I’m certainly not opposed to it.
It’s worth discussing. In reading your article, I kept asking myself if the ethical imperatives or principles involved had in fact changed, and I couldn’t find any. The environment, however, has shifted under our feet and has us questioning what is “public” or “private” communication, and hence issues of confidentiality.
Either way, this is an important discussion, and should be continued — not only for the CPC. but other interpreter-related issues like intellectual property (not unknown to you, since some of yours is floating around out there).
I like the idea of a separate tenent to keep it as clear as possible to reduce ambiguity for interpreters. Here is where I struggle: I want to connect socially thru vlogging on personal topics and professional ones. Can an interpreter share on topics such as politics, faith, social issues, personal perspectives on the work of interpreting or are those, which could be objectionable to someone or sets of someones, issues we have to forego? That would be a bummer because it is a valuable growth opportunity to share in community with other ASL users.
Note, also, that interpreters who use location based social networking (Foursquare, et al) should never check into the location where they are working.
A M E N!
Juliann Wasisco Certified Deaf Interpreter!
Personally, I am a little tired of big goverment looking over our sholder so I feel the same about RID. WE have our basic tenents, is that not good enough??? Do we have to outline and be specific or can we give basic guide lines. I am sure the interpreter was just making up that situation anyway so to me it is not a big deal.
I saw these post about the pot and didnt think anything of it, it was a general statement for humor, there was no invitation or promotion of pot…
Thanks for your comment Helen,
I’m certainly supportive of more free speech than censorship. Your comment about basic guidelines is exactly what this discussion is about. Just as you viewed the posts as no big deal, to another it is. The question is, does this kind of post, joking or made up, reflect well upon the profession, community and the poster’s personal professionalism? The above article is an attempt to begin the conversation on basic guidelines.
I’d be interested in anymore thoughts on what should or shouldn’t be a part of those guidelines?
Thanks for your response. I see that ‘tenant’ was changed to ‘tenent’ but the correct term is ‘tenet’.
Thanks.
HI there Betty,
I’ve edited as suggested.
Regarding the greater picture and the essence of the document, I would be interested in your observation on the ethical dilemmas seen in interpreter’s online behavior.
Any thoughts?
Wing
Hi there Betty,
I always appreciate your wisdom and feedback. Brandon was kind to accept responsibility, although I must take full accountability for the error. In the spirit of all things human, I clearly remember spell-check challenging me on my original spelling and a negligent spidey sense allowed for the misappropriated result. As a coda, I certainly could use additional training on English. I appreciate the collective feedback on social media behavior and look toward a team approach to adjusting the tenets (wink) within the CPC.
Hi there Ricardo,
Thank you for your comments. Awareness to consequences is certainly the key.
In the UK I assumed all interpreters/note takers,and support workers for deaf people were bound by the official secrets act ? So if a terp is going online making comments about their charges then they can be fired, and right to work with deaf people removed, the net doesn’t offer them immunity. I’d certainly report any I saw doing that. Even deaf relay service operators are bound by the same law.
Thank you, Wing! Great article. No online social media should be used to discuss your work. Period. Once you get into a habit of chatting… loose lips will sink ships. If you have a confidante fellow interpreter that you can ask questions of, you don’t need to do it in a social media setting. I am appalled it would even be thought to be the place.
Thanks Ellen,
As you can see the reaction to online behavior discipline is diverse. Thank you for your thoughts.
Angi
Thank you for saying what I was trying to express. I couldnt agree with you more.
What is personal should remain so, use common sense and dont bad mouth your employer on FB or co workers but if someone post a picture of you plastered at a party, that should not count against you.
Thanks again
Thanks for writing this article! As a sign language interpreter, I can definitely say that this topic is very relevant with regard to issues facing interpreters today and more should be written about it.
Thank you for pointing out my struggle with social networking. I rarely post comments on FaceBook and do not really get into Twitter. I thought it was a personality thing but it seemed to go beyond that and you’ve nailed it. The consequence of social networking expression, if done wrong, can bring a hamper on my professional life as a tax compliance specialist. I would not want to taint my creditably because of some dumb random comments I’d post to the eternal and un-erasable recording of the Internet.
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HI there Dawn,
Good points. What you share is a healthy understanding of “Symptom 1: The interpreter prioritizes the right of online self-expression above ethical responsibilities.”
Your mature view of your legal work has influenced you even further than just monitoring “what you post”, but also “what posts you read”. Doing so certainly adds value to the type of interpreter you are.
Thanks for the insight.
Wing
Thanks for your comments Kevin. Sometimes it take a walk in the shoes of another to get closer to the issue. I can also see a case for adding an 8.2. EIther way, more clarity around online behavior seems timely.
I’m almost 3 years late but, I do believe that companies look up their employees (if employed) on social media. I think it’s very unprofessional to even talk about a client on any social media site. You are risking your job and it’s confidential to the client.
Thumbs up Jennifer!
[…] matter how you shake it, our public behavior off the clock—whether that’s in person or over social media—has consequences for our reputations as interpreters. This is exactly why we need to honor our […]