Review of Sign Language Interpretation Services and Service ...

5.3.1 Population distributionMost of the countries chosen for this review have a similar population distributionto Ireland. New Zealand, Finland and Scotland all have SLI resourcesconcentrated in city centres and experience difficulties in meeting the needs ofDeaf people in rural areas. Deaf people tend to gravitate towards centres wherethere are SLI services and this can result in a reduced level of service for thosewho remain in isolated rural areas. In New Zealand approximately 65% of theinterpreters are based in one city with virtually none outside of the four mainpopulation centres.Given the shortage of interpreters and the free-market nature of much of theprovision, it is difficult to influence the distribution of interpreters. For example,funding is available to employ BSL/English Interpreters in the Scottish Highlandsbut few interpreters are willing to move there and others resist travelling longdistances when there is more than enough work in the urban centres of Glasgowand Edinburgh. Some of the Scottish local authorities have funded individuals toundergo interpreter training in order to build up local SLI resources but thesemeasures have had limited success.In an attempt to address this ongoing problem of rural access, attention is nowbeing turned towards the application of new technologies, especially in theprovision of remote interpreting using broadband internet access. This isdescribed more fully in Section 5.4 of this chapter.5.3.2 Top-down and bottom-up delivery and organisation of SLI servicesDenmark, Finland and New Zealand have adopted a national or top-downapproach to the provision of SLI services. All three have regional centres thatact as a central point of contact for dealing with interpreter bookings. InNew Zealand, the Deaf Association of New Zealand offers an interpretingservice through its twelve regional offices. In Denmark, the Centre for theDeaf administers SLI services in four regions. Finland has 20 regional centresdelivering SLI services. These services can act closely in accordance with nationalstrategy. However, there can be disadvantages with this national structure.Where it can become more difficult to accommodate local priorities, there is lesscommunication with the local Deaf community, and the organisation is moredriven by central government priorities. Those countries which follow thisstructure seem to have more uniformity and consistency in provision across thecountry. Where the national top-down influence is strong (reflecting the prioritygiven to SLI services), there are also likely to be more trained interpreters.In other countries, SLI services have been developed from the bottom-up,reflecting local priorities and in response to local need. SLI services may beprovided by local deaf organisations, by local authorities, or private businesses. InScotland, a number of local societies for the Deaf now employ their owninterpreters. In other areas, local authorities have set up SLI services providingfree interpreting for the services provided by their own departments and chargingother users. Some areas are served by private sector interpreting services such asClarion and Sign Solutions in England. Where there are areas without interpretingpage 90 • Review of Sign Language Interpretation Services and Service Requirements in Ireland