Trudy Suggs | Deaf Disempowerment and Today’s Interpreter
Trudy Suggs examines how the choices sign language interpreters make while delivering communication access can, and often do, contribute to the economic and situational disempowerment of deaf people.
Deaf Disempowerment and Today’s Interpreter
In the spirit of being transparent, the stories I’m about to share might be uncomfortable for some of you. While I would like to speak my truth, I recognize that you have your own truth as well. I trust that you will evaluate the stories I share and recognize the value in them. I actually was, and am, reluctant about presenting today because like many deaf people who speak out, I’ve had to endure a lot of negative feedback for being a “strong personality,” “angry deaf person,” and so on. My goal today is for you, as interpreters, to be open to possibly uncomfortable topics, uncomfortable truths, and uncomfortable analyses—whether they apply to you or not.
I believe that the best way to become bona fide allies is to embrace difficult ideas, opinions and, yes, facts. At the end of the day, we’re all in this together.
Four weeks ago, my two-year-old son fell and broke his leg. A week later, I took him, along with my one-year-old, to the orthopedic doctor for a check-up. Now, I live in a town where there are 250 to 300 deaf people living among 23,000 people; we have the deaf school, so everyone knows how to sign or how to work with interpreters. After about 45 minutes of waiting in the lobby—very unusual for a town of this size—I asked the receptionist about the severe delay. The receptionist never once looked up from her computer, saying that the doctor was backed up. I asked if we could see the doctor since my children were restless, hungry and my son, in a body cast from chest to toe, needed his medicine—which was at home. She said no. I said, “Could you please speak to the doctor or nurse?” She replied, “Oh, no, I can’t do that,” and I repeated my request. She adamantly refused.
I finally said, “Could you please look at me?” She looked at the interpreter, and I said, “No, at me.” Once she did, I asked, “Could you please offer a resolution? We’ve been here an hour.” At that very moment, my baby began crying, and the receptionist finally realized the extent of my situation. A nurse came out who was far more courteous and apologetic. After we talked about the delay, I asked how I could make a complaint about the receptionist.
A few minutes later, the receptionist called the interpreter over, saying the interpreter had a phone call. The interpreter answered the phone, and realized it was the office manager calling for me. All this time, the receptionist was looking at me with dagger eyes. The office manager began asking questions. I explained that I wasn’t comfortable talking about the situation because the receptionist was listening in. The office manager reassured me she’d be in touch. As I returned to my seat, I realized the interpreter was still by the front desk. I looked back and saw her cover her mouth as she whispered to the receptionist. When she came back to where we were sitting, I asked what she had said to the receptionist.
“Nothing, why?”
“I saw you whisper to her, what did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“No, I saw you whisper. What was it about?”
She relented and said, “Uh, she began apologizing to me for her behavior, and said she didn’t mean to talk to you like that. I told her it was okay.”
“But it isn’t okay how she treated me. Why didn’t you tell her to apologize directly to me?”
I could see the realization of her mistake dawn over her face. Just then, we were called into the examination room and the appointment was over fairly quickly.
Such a simple act of trying to mediate a situation—when she really didn’t have the right to—became situational disempowerment. Had she been in my shoes, would she have told the receptionist it was okay? I don’t know. Mind you, I would absolutely work with this interpreter again. Still, the experience led me to think about disempowerment.
Let’s take a quick look at the word disempowerment. The word has quite a simple definition for such a powerful concept: to take away power.
As interpreters, you have a very delicate line to walk on the job. You have to figure out how to mediate culture, conflicts, personalities, and a million other things all at the same time as interpreting. I won’t go into theoretical mumbo-jumbo about that because you already know this. I will, however, share my experiences as a person who comes from a family of at least 600 combined years of experience in the deaf community, as a mother to four deaf children, and as someone who is supposedly at the center of the deaf community. I also work as a certified deaf interpreter, and have grown up always believing that the deaf community and the hearing community are really not all that much different—even if there are worlds of differences in so many ways.
There are two types of disempowerment discussed throughout today’s talk and workshop, both interconnected: situational disempowerment and economic disempowerment.
For another example of situational disempowerment, let’s go back to when I was 13 years old. I went to a public high school that had 80 deaf students and 8 full-time interpreters. I took a theater course with three other deaf students and maybe 25 hearing students; it was interpreted by one of the better interpreters. She criticized my signing every single day, saying that I signed too fast and too “ASL.” She even went as far as voicing gibberish if she didn’t understand me—at fast speeds to mimic my signing speed—and this would cause the hearing students and teacher to break out in laughter.
For an extremely insecure teenager struggling with her identity, having attention called to her like this was beyond horrifying. This was humiliation, pure and simple. The interpreter, to cover up her lack of fluency, purposefully disempowered me. Even today, I momentarily revert to that 13-year-old whenever someone says I sign too fast—which, by the way, a deaf person has never said to me. Interpreters should be accountable for their lack of fluency and not put this on the deaf person’s shoulders.
Every interpreter’s goal should be to ensure communication access, not disempowerment in any form. To take away a deaf person’s power, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is unacceptable. With that in mind, there is another way deaf people can be disempowered—and that’s financially.
As we all know, there are people who do take advantage of the deaf community. History has shown this time after time, ranging from pretending to be deaf and peddling ABC cards to trying to get out of tickets or charges. Back in 1997, I uncovered one of the most bizarre stories I’ve ever come across. While we’ll discuss this more in my workshop, it is a long, strange tale with so many twists and turns. This really happened. This isn’t fiction.
In 1997, Saturn, the car corporation, ran a series of advertisements both on television and in print. This ad campaign was called its Real People, Real Cars campaign—and featured actual owners, not actors, in its ads. I need to say that one more time: the people in the ads were actual owners. Not actors.
One of the owners was Holly Daniel, who posed as a deaf person. When I saw the televised advertisement, I immediately knew she wasn’t deaf. I called the car company, and a representative there insisted she was deaf. That’s when I learned that it was a campaign featuring actual owners. After a serendipitous series of events—including a lot of backlash from people who were angry that I would be so nitpicky— I got a tip from someone that this woman was an educational interpreter and not deaf.
When I talked with Holly about the claims that she was hearing, she responded that she was deaf, but she had a twin sister who was hearing, and that was what was causing the confusion. She even faxed me falsified birth certificates. After many odd incidents, she finally came clean. I later found out that she had pretended to be deaf for up to two years before the advertisement—so she didn’t do it for the money alone.
Speaking of money—she was to get $75,000 for the ad campaign. She ended up only getting $10,000—and the car company decided not to pursue legal action because that would have cost more. She’s still working as an interpreter and has never apologized to the community for what she did.
So things like this do happen—all the time.
Even if the Holly Daniel story is an extreme example, it happens in so many ways. Power follows money. When people make money off deaf people, deaf culture, and ASL, this can easily lead to disempowerment and have ripple effects.
Take ASL teaching. There are thousands of ASL teachers. Guess how many are deaf? No real statistics exist on this. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of certified Baby Sign Language instructors. How many are deaf? Your guess is as good as mine. I contacted the company that certifies instructors; it wouldn’t respond to my requests. I’ll say probably a very, very small percentage. There are about 20, maybe more, Deaf Studies programs at colleges and universities across the nation. Are all the program directors deaf? No. What’s wrong with this picture?
One of the more common responses when I ask why a deaf person isn’t at the helm of a program or agency working with deaf and hard of hearing people is, “We advertised the position and couldn’t find anyone qualified.” That certainly could be the case. Still, I say hogwash. Such situations lead to economic disempowerment and its ripple effects: deaf people aren’t hired, and those outside of the deaf community continue to have beliefs and perceptions shaped by hearing people.
If no qualified deaf person applies for that position, then there needs to be a short-term and long-term remedy. One solution is to keep the position open for as long as possible until someone who is qualified and deaf is hired. Another possible solution is to have an interim director in place, hire someone who is definitely capable of doing the job—and train that person until she or he is ready to take the helms. Is that costly and cumbersome? Perhaps. Cost-beneficial and cost-effective in the long run? Absolutely. This is one of many ways we can help boost deaf economics.
I first heard the term deaf economics when I interviewed DeafNation’s CEO Joel Barish for an article. He said that it’s extremely important to support deaf owners:
“. . .with more people supporting deaf businesses, there will be more job opportunities for deaf people because deaf business owners are more likely to hire deaf people more than anyone else. As a result, they can empower each other by working together or supporting each other. At the same time, with this support, visibility and networking will grow beyond the deaf community into the hearing community. It’s unfortunate that many people can’t see the bigger picture and will only chase the cheapest rates or prices instead of supporting deaf-owned businesses.”
With today’s dismal unemployment rates, we know deaf people are among the most underemployed people. Yet interpreting is one of the fastest-growing professions, largely in part because of laws requiring communication access, but it’s also because ASL is now an awesome thing to know, a cool language. Even though it has gained recognition as an actual, stand-alone language, it continues to be mocked by so many entities. We’ve all heard of the recent Lydia Callis spoofs on the Chelsea Handler show and even Saturday Night Live. While I understand Lydia’s general refusal to speak to reporters aside from the one interview I saw, I wish she could tell reporters to talk to deaf people. That would be incredibly refreshing.
I remember sitting by the pool at the 2001 RID conference in Orlando. I was with an interpreter friend, and I looked around. Interpreters surrounded us, and I said, “Wow. Everyone here is making money off my language.” She giggled, and then shushed me, saying, “Don’t say that! You’ll piss them off!”
Years later, as I remembered that conversation, I wondered why I shouldn’t have said that if it was the truth. ASL is a wealthy language not only in its contents, but also in its moneymaking opportunities.
Don’t think this is an attack on hearing people. It isn’t. After all, I, like many others, make money off my languages of ASL and English. I run a writing company that specializes in both ASL and English. I work as a certified deaf interpreter. I teach ASL and English. I train interpreters. So I have absolutely no issue with making money off any language—as long as the goal isn’t to make money, but to really share the culture and language, and to encourage genuine language acquisition.
So why do so many interpreters, mentors, rehabilitation professionals, ASL teachers, and others bristle at the idea that they’re making money off ASL? Maybe because it’s a harsh way to look at their professions. Perhaps if we face the truth, and say, “Yes, we do make money off ASL,” that’ll help us gain greater appreciation of the responsibilities that accompany the language and culture.
Even so, what is more important—to me, at least—is to understand how we can be allies in such challenging situations. How do we come together to prevent disempowerment in any form or shape? As interpreters, and as consumers, we can become aware of disempowerment, particularly situational disempowerment and how we often participate by accident or decisively. By actively resisting the almost automatic temptations of empathizing with hearing consumers—or even deaf consumers—we can minimize, even eliminate, potential disempowerment. By refusing to control situations, by deferring to the deaf person whenever appropriate, by allowing the consumers to control the situation, and by ensuring that you don’t speak on behalf of the entire deaf community especially if you’re hearing—you can take steps towards ensuring that deaf people retain their power while you do your job. Through supporting deaf businesses and agencies, operate under the assumption that a qualified deaf person should be the automatic choice—and if this isn’t the case, be among the first to question why not.
Another approach is to always analyze why something happened, and not instinctively blame it on the deaf consumer, however educated or uneducated he may be. Look at all the factors involved. Analyze whether or not the consumers felt as if they had full communication access. For many deaf people, a trigger point is losing communication access.
The bottom line is we must always strive to ensure that each culture and community is maintained and preserved by its very core, which in this situation are deaf people. However, we must also be careful to remember that if a deaf person expresses frustration at disempowerment, it doesn’t necessarily mean she or he is angry, divisive or separatist. Rather, take a look at the situation, and figure out how, if at all, you or other interpreters might have contributed to the situation. Support deaf businesses, services and events. If a job opportunity comes up, see if it would be best filled by a deaf person. If no deaf person is available, figure out how to ensure that a deaf person could be brought in.
Of course, your primary responsibility as interpreters is language facilitation and cultural mediation. But we must remember that all individuals, deaf or hearing, should always strive for full, mutual respect rather than disempowerment.
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172 Comments on "Trudy Suggs | Deaf Disempowerment and Today’s Interpreter"
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an additional thought to go with my comments above… with this new perspective on our profession how does that impact our CODA interpreters? They tend to be our best interpreters available culturally and in ASL… they grew up in the Deaf environment and would be “friends” with most of the Deaf community growing up.
The article was great for encouraging us to dig deep to analyze how we handle interpreting situations… thanks for such an honest feedback.
I think the job of the interpreter is just that – relaying messages to the Deaf person. The interpreter should not have gotten involved and shared what the receptionist was voicing so that the Deaf person could respond. Interpreters jobs are to relay messages and not be two sided. That’s my two cents.
Interpreters “apologizing for” their Deaf clients is a phenomenon seen regularly on television. I have seen it on The Practice, Sue Thomas FB Eye, and even Switched at Birth, where I KNOW Jack Jason is a consultant. It shocks me and brings me to anger each and every time. Popular media, while not a valid excuse for incorrect behavior, could do a great service by depicting interpreters exactly as they should be, instead of as helpers like they so often do.
Nicole, not that it’s relevant, but I wonder what episode if you remember for Sue Thomas FB Eye. I don’t recall ever seeing this on Sue Thomas. Especially since Sue didn’t often use an interpreter on scene.
[…] Deaf Disempowerment and Today’s Interpreter […]
Good questions ! I tried to use the recorder more often and gave another person listened and typed the notes. so can use the feedback with that interpreter to develop the improvement interpreter’s skills.
” that what not I said ….. ” the interpreter thought that what I said ..( I am too fast signer and too ASL too). try to develop team work better ! so the recorder would catch voicing gibberish
the big lesson !
Thank you, Trudy, for taking the risk and speaking out. I’d love to include this in teaching IPP students and workshop participants on the topic of ethics and case discussion. The way you framed the opening of your presentation was very encouraging of the spirit of transparency. This really contributed to my learning and self assessment, ongoing.
Yes, I have seen similar information about gender differences as well. One specifically related to competitions. Men tend to work very hard at beating the opponent while woman prefer to tie as to not offend anyone. Research had shown that men’s hormone levels are directly related to whether they win or lose. Hormones drop with loss and increase with winning. Women don’t experience these highs and lows. Very interesting stuff and I would love to see the information that you have! Please send it my way. 🙂
All this is definately worth discusiion. Very thought provoking!
Where did you get your information Jocelyn?? I agree that we women do tend to be more apologetic than men, but It seems to me that we can be just as ruthless in competition as men. I especially don’t get where the “women prefer to tie as to not offend anyone anyone” came from. I’ve never been one to kick someone when they’re down, but I’ve never preferred to tie than to win anything competitive, and I’ve never known any woman who felt that way.
Where did you get your information Jocelyn?? I agree that we women do tend to be more apologetic than men, but It seems to me that we can be just as ruthless in competition as men. I especially don’t get where the “women prefer to tie as to not offend anyone anyone” came from. I’ve never been one to kick someone when they’re down, but I’ve never preferred to tie than to win anything competitive, and I’ve never known any woman who felt that way.
Oh my goodness, don’t even get me started on that! I think “I’m sorry” is programmed into us women at birth! So many bad habits, so little time to correct them 😉
What a beautiful quote and thoughtful comment…well said.
Agree wholeheartedly about many interpreters not being fiscally/financially rich. That’s the name of the game for so many self-employed individuals (including me) And then there are those who DO get rich. through unethical practices..that’s another article. 😉
I have been through similar situation. Being ignorant of the rights of deaf having interpreters have been violated every day.
Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…
Donna, perhaps you could submit such an article. Let me know when it’s up and I’d be happy to share it with others.
@Donna, love the “woo-hoo”, I’m with ya girl!
Trudy, this was a fantastic article! My big thing is that if I make an error (in judgement or in production), *I* need to be the one to say that I made the mistake and resolve it. Your point about us being more cognizent of what we’re doing is well-taken.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and your thoughts!
HARD to do that, for sure. I’m always quick to admit if I made a mistake, but it’s really hard if I don’t recognize the mistake in the first place. And I think therein lies the problem: many (interpreters or not) don’t realize that they’ve made a mistake and don’t think what they did was wrong, inappropriate, culturally disrespectful, or any other thing. So yeah, easier said than done. But if we can at least be aware of this possibility…
Well! Maybe both my honey & I should go back to.school?
I’m copying/pasting this post, because it’s an amazing response. Beautifully written. Thank you.
P.S. That copy/paste comment is in reference to KM’s response. Pasting it into my files for future reading.
Other forms of disempowerment stem from deaf community’s acts of pillarizing criminals like Anthony Mowl, John Yeh, or in my area Russ Bye while they criminalize, bully, and severely criticizing innocent rising stars.
Deaf community will get a hard lesson on disempowerment. It comes from their hands. What you just did is attempted to bounce the fault on the interpreter.
Also thanks so much for posting in ASL! I feel so lucky to have seen your presentation even though I couldn’t go to the SLL event. Thanks a bunch! What a nice treat at the end of a long day/week!
Hi Trudy,
This is Arthur, you may remember me.. we used to chat a long time ago. Just wanted to mention that I read this article and saw the YT vid above and am rooting for you. Keep up the good fight!
leilani – Trudy offers transpirancy in her talk here. Perhaps you would like to offer your own transpirancy?
this wall there may be an attempt for equal leverage on this street?
Trudy – kudos and thank u
peace
Patti
“wall” should read as WAY in the comment above
oy my lack of proof reading until after i’ve clicked submit
peace
p
Beautifully said, Patty (and hi!). This is something I often think about: how does one become a real ally? It’s so easy to claim I support this and that for this and that group (or even individual)…yet, do we really, deep in our hearts, behave as allies?
“How can I know for sure that I sincerely come to the work as an interpreter clean and clear?” That. Exactly. And even then, how do we convey this sincerity to the other individuals involved?
Can I have Trudy Suggs email address please?
Kathy, you can contact me via my personal website (www.trudysuggs.com) or via my company website (www.tswriting.com).
So many excellent points made here. However, the message became cloudy due to the length and The many different scenarios. I believe that the message would have been stronger I it it had been more concise.
Awesome article!!! Thumbs UP!
Fascinating, fascinating perspectives. Thanks for the food for thought…that’s what I love about this forum. So many perspectives, so many experiences and so many thoughts. (And over on Facebook, too–I’ve been inspired by all the discussion among Deaf people on this topic.)
Awesome!!!! My sister is deaf I chose to get traning and not walk into interpreting because I knew SignLanguage. There is much more than just signing. I have watched my sister be disempowered too many times to count!!
I would not have a profession if it weren’t for her or the deaf. I make my living this way and yes I make money off the deaf! That is a cold hard truth!!!
Oppression of the deaf happens too often.
I love your honesty, Shelly! 🙂
Excellent speech, Trudy. Thank you for identifying economic and situational disempowerment. I know you were referring to interpreting, but I found this very enlightening in regards to the work I’m involved in at The Deaf Dream. Our organization focuses on empowerment of future Deaf global leaders, but it is hard at times to describe to hearing audiences that disempowerment occurs. I will most certainly use your talk in future discussions with hearing involved in our organization and hearing we meet around the world who do not yet recognize how much disempowerment occurs. Thank you!
Thanks Trudy for the article. Im going to seek out the video to watch. I also appreciated reading all the comments. Ive been doing some searching on “Deaf-heart”: what it means to me, how to apply it and wondering if I am applying it. The article and comments really gave me some things to think about. The article and comments also nudged me in directions I need to take so thanks to everyone!
Just a quick message that I will respond to comments, e-mails, tweets and Facebook messages over the weekend. Thanks for the amazing dialogue, discussions and insights you’ve all provided–loving it all!
As mentioned in our e-mail exchange, Brandon Arthur (the brainchild behind Street Leverage) has been struggling with technical glitches in getting the video to show the captions. The captions are already available; they’re just not showing. 🙂 I’ll let him respond with an ETA on the captions. I absolutely agree that all videos need to have captions, especially if the transcript isn’t 100% the same as what the video says.
Thank you. I only used disempowerment as a possible word–if others have different words, that’s fine. It just made sense for me in the examples I cited because that’s how I felt–as if I completely lost my power and/or choices.
Argh, wasn’t done. I also think that a lot of interpreters forget that we easily pick up on cues knowing if someone has said something or not–and like someone else somewhere said, the interpreter’s covering her mouth was a major clue.
Thank you for sharing.
I am curious to know who what can “see that someone is not in fact deaf”. The reason I ask this is because I am deaf now only 3 years ( as of January 22, 2013. I am highly verbal but I do prefer ASL to communicate with hearing people. But, I still talk with my voice with them to actually make it easier for them. So I look less deaf because I speak with my voice?
YES! There absolutely has to be more work in this area. I am not a researcher, sociologist, linguist, or any of these “-ists/-ers”–I just happen to have been in the Deaf community from birth on. And the sheer variety of communication modes, experiences and preferences within my immediate family alone is mind-boggling. That’s one of the many reasons I think so many interpreters find their jobs challenging at times–they have to figure out their consumers’, both deaf and hearing, preferences and needs, and so forth.
Morning! In response to the sudden influx of friend requests I’ve gotten on Facebook, I’m pleased to share that I have a public page at http://www.facebook.com/trudysuggswriter. Feel free to like the page there so that you can stay updated on upcoming articles and/or vids, presentations, and more. And if you e-mailed me directly, I hope to get back to you today. I’ve gotten an overwhelming number of messages, and would like to encourage people to post here instead for discussion on your thoughts. Thanks!
Trudy, I was in awe of your eloquent delivery of the seriously needed message. Thank you for being sincere and courageous yet tactful. I must confess that being involved in my church work as well as a retiree, I appreciate being mentally, emotionally and spiritually stimulated. Keep up with the good work.
Patrick
Someone made a comment regarding CODA’s earlier. While there are many skilled CODA’s out there, there are many who are downright awful and sign like they just finished an ASL 2 class. Just because you are a CODA does not necessarily mean you are a skilled signer. I asked to switch interpreters one time because this interpreter couldn’t keep up and I had a hard time understanding her and she got angry and took it personally and said “I’m a CODA!”. Like that would change my opinion of her.
TJ, very glad you said this. And even if you’re a fluent signer, that doesn’t mean you’re qualified to be an interpreter…but that’s a whole ‘nother article, preferably written by a CODA. 🙂