Interpreting: Professional Organizations

Timeline

Professional interpreting organizations began to emerge in the 1960s and 1970s with organizations such as The U.S. Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID), Sweden’s Sveriges teckenspråkstolkars förening (STTF), Denmark’s Foreningen af Tegnsprogstolke (FTT), France’s l’Association française des interprètes et traducteurs en langue des signes (l’AFILS), and Canada’s Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada (AVLIC). However, not until the early 1990s and 2000s did the field experience a period of rapid development with the emergence of multiple professional interpreting organizations. It is interesting to note in the timeline of events that the charter that founded the Texas Society of Interpreters for the Deaf (TSID) was signed in 1963, and TSID was later incorporated as an affiliate chapter of RID, which was founded in 1964. As national organizations continued to appear, the European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters (efsli) was established in 1993 to unite interpreters and interpreter organizations across the continent. Just 10 years later in 2003, the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) was founded with a similar purpose to advance the profession worldwide and to encourage the formation of national interpreter associations in other countries.

Progression of Role and Functions

Though they may espouse differing emphases, national interpreting organizations around the world share common purposes, aims, and functions. At the heart of any professional interpreting organization is the same goal: to remove communication barriers for Deaf people. This is accomplished as organizations progress through various [Page 516]overlapping stages of development. While individual interpreting organizations may progress through these stages in unique ways or develop at different rates, the common themes of providing training and resources and of establishing standards and relationships seem to hold true universally.

Recurring themes are evident in the evolution of all interpreting associations, such as the initial stage of achieving recognition of interpreting as a viable profession. As the country gives credence to the natural sign language used by the Deaf community, interpreters begin to gain status as professionals, which then dictates the need for setting and improving standard practices for high quality interpretation. Therefore, interpreting organizations contribute to the field by guiding expectations for ethical behavior along with establishing a working paradigm for the role a professional interpreter. Another important function of professional interpreting organizations is the creation of a national directory of interpreters as a resource for institutions requiring interpreting services.

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