One job too many?

Significant changes in the employment profile of deaf people over the last 30 years have led to their increased presence within the white-collar, non-industrialized workplace. As a result, signed language interpreters (SLIs) have also moved into this new domain. As deaf consumers begin to assume positions of status and power, SLIs are by necessity re-evaluating their relationships with deaf clients in order to mirror the changing dynamics (Napier et al. 2008). Evidence suggests that SLIs in the workplace are frequently expected to switch between the roles of confidant, co-worker, interpreter, assistant and advocate within a single interpreted interaction (Dickinson and Turner 2008). Drawing upon ethnographic data from a PhD research study this paper will demonstrate the complex multiplicity of the SLI’s workplace role.