Exploring Themes in Stakeholder Perspectives of Video Remote Interpreting in Court

Abstract

This chapter reports on a project conducted to investigate the feasibility of providing remote signed language interpreting services through AVL in the legal system in the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The project was commissioned by the NSW Department of Justice and Attorney General, with a view to informing policy about the provision of signed language interpreters in court remotely via video. Until 2010, no research had been conducted on signed language interpreting services provided through AVL for legal purposes. Given the high stakes involved in legal proceedings mediated through interpreters, it is imperative to analyse the effectiveness of remote signed language interpreting via AVL to conduct legal proceedings. Qualitative findings are provided that give an overview of the stakeholder perspectives of the effectiveness of AVL to enable signed language interpreter-mediated legal proceedings. Deaf and interpreter participants generally found that although there were no major issues, they were not entirely comfortable communicating via this medium and in particular there were pragmatic challenges. The chapter will inform spoken and signed language interpreter practitioners about issues to consider when interpreting remotely via video.