Interpreting: Agencies

Referral Agencies or Booking Agencies

Interpreting service agencies are either referral or booking agencies. A referral agency receives a request, finds available interpreters, and refers the interpreters to the requester. The interpreters and the requester negotiate payment and other details themselves, and the agency may have no other role after that point. A booking agency receives a request, finds available interpreters, confirms the interpreters with the requester, and after the assignment is complete bills the requester and pays the interpreters. In the beginning, ISAs were mostly referral agencies; currently, most are booking agencies.

Nonprofit or Government Agencies

In communities where one is available, a residential school for the Deaf is often the first place people turn to for locating interpreters. Because the services are frequently for former students and because in most cases the school also provides vocational training and guidance, interpreter referral is a natural part of the menu of informal services the school provides to the community. These interpreters are often teachers or other staff working during off hours.

Organizations attempting to hire interpreters may also contact their local Deaf social service agency. In addition to interpreting services, these nonprofit groups may offer a suite of community services such as housing, counseling, and employment assistance.

Local speech and hearing agencies are often contacted about interpreting services. Some of these agencies provide ad hoc referrals while others have established departments specifically to provide interpreting services. Whether speech and hearing agencies entered the interpreting services market for financial gain or because of their focus on the larger goals of rehabilitation and increased community engagement is an open question. But the irony that organizations with such a strongly audiological view of Deaf people would be involved in providing visual language access is not lost on the community.

State commissions of the Deaf may also provide sign language interpreting services. States may offer assessments or legislate requirements for professional licensing and registration. Interpreters providing these services generally have to maintain proof of state or national credentials or pass a departmental screening, and penalties vary for disregarding the rules. As these organizations’ overhead expenses are subsidized by the state, commercial entities may have a difficult time establishing a clientele. The benefit to the community is that Deaf people receive quality interpreting services at a predictable and reasonable rate. The downside may be a lack of innovation, competition, and choice in interpreting service providers.

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