This abstract is summarized by IPR based on the original journal article in the Journal of Applied Communication Research
Alys Young, Ph.D., and colleagues explored how mediated communication through a sign language interpreter impacts occupational relations of hearing people and deaf signers in the workplace.
An analysis of eight semi-structured interviews was conducted.
Key findings include:
1.) If hearing participants wanted to get to know their deaf colleagues outside of their work role-based interactions, communication barriers made it more difficult than would be the case with hearing colleagues.
– This lack of knowing someone better socially had direct occupational effects.
2.) All participants acknowledged the importance of interpreters in getting to know their deaf colleagues because this was the means to knowing what they ‘said’. However, participants made a distinction between this kind of knowledge based on the content of communication, and knowing a person in the sense of their personality and character.
3.) Hearing respondents who had face to face encounters with a deaf colleague without an interpreter described their personal discomfort being greater than when communicating with an interpreter.
Read more to learn how communication through a sign language interpreter impacts occupational relations between hearing people and deaf signers in the workplace.
Citation
Young, A., Oram, R., & Napier, J. (2019). Hearing people perceiving deaf people through sign language interpreters at work: On the loss of self through interpreted communication. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 47, 90-110.
