Abstract This article examines the tensions between the language needs of asylum seekers and how these are addressed in institutional language policy and practice, focusing on the everyday practice of asylum lawyers communicating with their clients, which is characterized by immense linguistic diversity and a high demand for language support in languages of lesser diffusion (LLDs). Based on an analysis of policy documents and ethnographic data, this article examines how asylum lawyers deal with the challenges of providing accessible and appropriate language support to clients who speak an LLD. We explore how, in the absence of clear policy guidance, lawyers develop mechanisms for monitoring interpreting quality and local strategies of linguistic tolerance that condone suboptimal forms of language support for LLDs. Our research shows how these local language policies, however well-intentioned, can jeopardize the language rights of asylum seekers and deprive them of the language support to which they are entitled.

Abstract This quasi-experimental study explored professional Australian Sign Language (Auslan)/English interpreters’ strategic additions when interpreting an Auslan presentation into spoken English in the simultaneous mode. The product analysis involves the researcher and a research assistant identifying and categorizing participants’ strategic additions independently, using a corpus-driven approach. The process analysis entails the researcher analyzing participants’ retrospective interviews to find their motivations for producing strategic additions. The results show that the five most frequent types of strategic additions in this corpus of signed-to-spoken language simultaneous interpretations include explicitation, adding referents to numbers, referring to previous relevant information, adding conjunctions, and elaboration. Striving for optimal relevance appears to be the interpreters’ main motivation for making strategic additions in conference interpreting. The results suggest that professional interpreters are usually user-oriented and make strategic additions, consciously or subconsciously, to enhance the communicative impact of their interpretations.

Abstract This article reports on the linguistic and cultural adaptation of Items of the National Quality of Life Survey (NQLS 2018), which are included in a National Survey that explores the availability of reasonable accommodation for Deaf users in a health care setting as well as health care access. We document the cultural and linguistic adaptation step-by-step, guided by a literature review, participatory group discussions, and qualitative testing. This research addresses the dearth of accessible research instruments for D‍/‍deaf persons in low and middle-income countries. This lack of accessible tools leads to double layers of exclusion, and data gaps often lead to erroneous generalizations that do not accurately represent D‍/‍deaf populations. Evidence gaps may result in poor service planning and inadequate policymaking. This study contributes to good practices in language interpreting in research settings, disability research, and global health.

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Abstract In the capstone unit of a Master of Translation, students were required to write “judicious” interventions (Lefevere 1996) by way of peritextual commentary, be it an introduction, a preface, or a postface. Such interventions are at heart a reaction against the well-documented translators’ invisibility. The hope is that studying patterns of published translators’ interventions of this type and teaching trainee translators to write their own will foster self-reflexivity, confidence and “the virtues of courage and determination” (Chesterman 2001). The article describes how learners were encouraged to meet this outcome, the tasks involved, and how some students in the 2020 cohort fared. It concludes with some suggestions on how to promote best practice in teaching to combat translators’ invisibility.

Abstract Researchers’ proximity to their field of interest can make it difficult to create what Bourdieu called “the strange point of view” needed to look beyond the field’s implicit beliefs when producing new knowledge. Based on a Bourdieusian approach to reflexive sociology, this article discusses proximity and distance when conducting research on and with one’s own students. To problematize proximity and distance in a research project, this article discusses a case in which a teacher/researcher conducted research on and with her own students in a bachelor’s degree program in sign language and interpreting as part of a project focusing on the students’ development of professional characteristics as interpreters for individuals with deafblindness. This article argues that student participation and input created an epistemological rupture and represented the strange point of view that became a counterweight to the researcher’s proximity to the field.

Abstract This article critically analyzes current sign language policy trends and related sign language ideologies regarding interpreter provision and the institutionalization of sign language interpreting in Canada. Particular attention is paid to issues of representation in the provision of interpreters for government emergency briefings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the provision of interpreting services for COVID-19 briefings, sign language interpreting as a profession in Canada is revealed as problematic. This is particularly true regarding the institutionalization of the profession and how existing social hierarchies and ideologies are consolidated with respect to diverse deaf people and interpreters.