Deaf Perspective on English to ASL Interpreting Repair Strategies

This study explores the deaf perspective of five interpreting repairs utilized in English to American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting events by means of analyzing the group discussion among 10 deaf professional participants.

This paper discusses various interpreting repair categorizations, and it highlights the heretofore gap in interpretation and translation research that considers the Deaf consumer’s perspective of the effectiveness and various impacts resulting from interpreting repairs.

This study uses academic interpreting source samples and involves only Deaf professionals and Deaf Ph.D. students from Gallaudet University in order to examine the successfulness of English to ASL interpretations through the lens of Deaf individuals in advanced and technical settings.

The analysis of the focus group data will focus on Deaf participants’ identification of interpreting repairs, the change in interpersonal dynamics between interlocutors and interpreters, and the feelings of trust in an interpreter and his/her ongoing interpreting work.

This study will be the first of its kind to address the growing community of Deaf individuals in advanced academic and professional settings, along with their perceptions of accuracy and trust regarding common interpreting repair strategies.