On The Multiple Roles Of Sign Language Interpreters In Chinese Hospitals

With the rise of community interpreting research in the West in the 1990s,the role of interpreters has become an increasingly researched theme.Scholars conduct interdisciplinary investigations into interpreters’ roles in legal and medical settings.Major medical interpreters’ professional organizations have promulgated codes of ethics and professional standards for practitioners.Scholars have questioned the single role position of interpreters as "conduits",and proposed diversified roles,including information clarifier,patients’ advocate,and co-diagnostician(Hsieh,2008).The role of medical interpreters has only begun to attract Chinese researchers in the last decade(e.g.,苏伟,2010).A small handful of studies have been conducted on medical SLI,covering topics such as obstacles that impede Deaf people’s access to a doctor,and the users’experience and preference for different forms of SLI(Hommes et al.,2018;Yabe,2019).There seems a lack of research on the role of medical sign language(SL)interpreters.To date,little is published on medical SLI in China.However,according to findings of previous survey(肖晓燕等,2018),among the settings where Deaf people in China most need SLI but cannot get the service,medical settings top the list.The author has conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 medical SL interpreters in four Chinese cities that provide regular medical SLI to Deaf people.Through the interviews,a better understanding of interpreters’role perception can be developed.The interpreters,unanimously identify themselves first and foremost as Deaf patients’ family members and friends,and also as advocates and agents of both the patients and the hospital,as information clarifiers,and as medical staff and co-diagnosticians.Some of these roles echo the findings and descriptions of roles from previous studies on spoken language interpreters.Some may reflect the status quo of Chinese Deaf people and the strained medical resources in China.The thesis gives a glimpse into the reality of medical SLI in China.It is hoped that this study can attract more academic and professional attention onto improving the professionalization of medical SLI in China which will ensure better access to medical services for the Chinese Deaf people.