13.3 Orienting Consumers & Educating Hearing Participants

The NIC Role Delineation Study lists skill in "educating consumers (both deaf and hearing) on how to use the interpreter when appropriate" among the preparation tasks. It is bracketed with "when appropriate" for a reason: a brief orientation for a first-time hearing participant is professional practice, while lecturing an experienced Deaf consumer about how interpreting works is patronizing and, in Deaf-community terms, audist.

1. Who needs orienting, and who does not

The default assumption should be that the Deaf consumer is the expert on working with interpreters. They have almost certainly done it more often than the hearing professional has.

2. What a hearing-participant orientation covers

Keep it under a minute, and keep it about mechanics rather than philosophy:

1. Speak directly to the Deaf person. "Ask her…" becomes "Do you…". Maintain eye contact with the consumer, not the interpreter.
2. Everything said in the room will be interpreted. Side comments, asides to colleagues, jokes, and the muttered remark to the nurse all get rendered.
3. There is a lag. The interpretation runs a few seconds behind, so pause before expecting a response and do not interpret silence as incomprehension.
4. One person at a time. Overlapping speech cannot be interpreted simultaneously.
5. Visual materials need visual time. A consumer cannot read a slide and watch the interpreter at once; pause when you display something.
6. The interpreter may ask you to repeat or to slow down. That is normal and does not mean anything is wrong.

3. What the orientation must not become

Illustrative Behavior 2.5 bars providing "counsel, advice, or personal opinions," and Illustrative Behavior 4.4 requires interpreters to "facilitate communication access and equality, and support the full interaction and independence of consumers." Together these draw a hard edge around the orientation:

• Explain how interpreting works; do not explain what the Deaf person needs, wants, or means.
• Do not answer questions about the consumer's hearing status, education, language ability, or history. Redirect: "That's a good question to ask her directly."
• Do not become the institution's Deaf-culture consultant during the encounter. General education is valuable and appropriate — as a scheduled activity, not as an unpaid improvisation during someone's medical appointment.
• Do not speak about the consumer in the third person while they are present.

4. The pre-encounter exchange with the Deaf consumer

A short exchange before the encounter — greeting in ASL and paying attention to the response — accomplishes several things at once:

• It lets the consumer see your signing and register whether they understand you.
• It lets you see theirs, which is the most reliable language assessment available.
• It surfaces name signs, preferred terminology, and prior context you would otherwise have to guess.
• It allows placement to be agreed rather than imposed.
• It communicates respect, which matters in a setting where the consumer is often the only person who did not choose to be there.

Keep it professional and brief. The pre-encounter exchange is not a social visit, and lingering conversation in a waiting room can create the appearance of a relationship that compromises perceived impartiality.

5. Orienting for specific configurations

• Team present: tell the hearing participants that two interpreters will alternate and that the off interpreter's occasional signing is a support feed, not a side conversation.
• CDI present: explain that the Deaf interpreter works between the hearing interpreter and the consumer, so a message may pass through two people; expect a slightly longer lag and do not address the CDI as though they were the consumer.
• Remote/VRI: confirm before starting that the consumer can see the screen adequately from their actual position, that the audio reaches the interpreter, and that someone in the room will manage the equipment.
• Recorded or streamed encounter: ensure the consumer knows, because it changes what they may choose to say.

6. Handling the participant who will not adjust

Some hearing participants persist in "tell her that…" or continue speaking over one another. Escalate proportionately:

1. Non-verbal redirection — gesture toward the consumer, break your own eye contact with the speaker.
2. A brief, neutral process statement — "I'll interpret everything; you can speak directly to her."
3. A pause and reset if overlapping speech has made interpretation impossible: identify the process problem, not the person.
4. A post-encounter conversation with the host or coordinator for a recurring pattern.

Notice that all four are process interventions, not content interventions. The interpreter manages the conditions of communication without entering the conversation's substance — the distinction that separates a communication facilitator from a participant.