Review of Sign Language Interpretation Services and Service ...

4.3 THEME 1:THE NEED FOR SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETATIONSPANS ALL ASPECTS OF DAILY LIVING AND DEMANDIS CURRENTLY DIFFICULT TO QUANTIFY4.3.1 Areas of need for sign language interpretationThe capacity to communicate is fundamental to social engagement. Deaf people,interpreters and representative organisations described the wide range ofactivities for which Deaf people need access to sign language interpretation.Many of these were described as areas of unmet or partially met need.Interpretation is needed to facilitate access to basic social services such as healthservices (including primary care services, mental health services, maternityservices, dental services), education, training and employment, involvement withthe Garda, Probation Service, and Courts Services. Deaf people and interpretersdescribed many gaps in these areas. For example, while provision of interpretinghas become the norm in the criminal court system, provision in the civil or familycourts appears to be less structured. Health insurance providers do not currentlyroutinely cover provision of interpreter support for a Deaf person attending aprivate consultant. Interpretation is needed for difficult family meetings and forcounselling, and funding is not systematically available for these tasks.Access to sign language interpreting for emergency services, such as accident andemergency units, ambulance services and involvement with the Garda is aparticularly urgent need, which should be met at all times. At present there is noprovision for this.Several contributors raised concerns about sign language interpretation provisionfor Deaf children attending primary and post-primary schools. Members of theDeaf community in particular expressed concern about the fact that children inmainstream schools are not provided with professional interpreters. They spokeabout the reliance on personnel who do not have professional interpretationtraining as a very significant and worrying issue, with long term consequencesfor children and the Deaf community.Given that approximately 95% of Deaf parents have hearing children, the need forthose parents to attend and benefit from parent teacher meetings was raised byseveral contributors; provision in this area is unstructured and uncertain, in theexperience of the individuals and organisations with whom we consulted.Access to the Arts is at a very rudimentary level, and it was stated that only theAbbey Theatre has a formal access programme. Translation of televisionprogrammes is still considered to be at a preliminary stage. As the broadcastinglegislation is implemented, the demand for capacity to translate televisionprogrammes will be significant.For people seeking employment, in employment or self-employed, access to signlanguage interpretation can be crucial to their success. While FÁS has a fund forinterpretation at interviews, there was evidence of confusion among Deaf peoplepage 64 • Review of Sign Language Interpretation Services and Service Requirements in Ireland