When Medical Interpreting Becomes Legal Interpreting
Workshop Description:
You are called to the ER and the Police show up to question your client. You are sitting in the doctor’s office and the Client discloses abuse or the baby has suspicious injuries. What is your role now? How have the demands of the assignment changed and when do you call for help? This workshop walks through situations and scenarios that interpreters find themselves in all too often and gives practical suggestions on navigating the ethics and practicalities of medical interpreting becoming legal interpreting.
Educational Objectives:
At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Recognize when medical situations have become legally operative beyond the scope of “informed consent”
- Analyze the specific staffing needs of various legal situations common to medical settings
- Analyze the practical and ethical demands legal interpreting in a medical setting makes of the interpreter
- Prepare a scripted answer for requesting full staffing or declining to continue the assignment
- List some of the specialized training and skills required to effectively interpret in medical/legal hybrid conditions.
Presenter Bio:
Dale is a tenured Associate Professor of Deaf Studies at Utah Valley University and attorney advocating for persons who are Deaf. Dale presents nationally on both interpreter education and legal advocacy and is the author of many papers on interpreting and the rights of people who are Deaf including: The Physics of Processing Time; Cohesion and Orphans in Interpretation; Legal Rights of Individuals with Disabilities: Law, Deafness and Personhood; Vote: The Power is in Your Hands; Making the ADA Effective for the Deaf Community; and Serving the Client Who is Deaf.
Dale also works with arts organizations including the National Theatre of the Deaf, The Utah Opera Company, The Sundance Institute, The Wang Center for the Performing Arts, The Fulton Opera House and many other companies.
Dale grew up in Taylorsville, Utah, but has lived in Indianapolis, New York, Chicago and Boston. Dale is nationally certified as an ASL interpreter and is licensed to practice law in both Utah and Massachusetts. Dale was on the board of the 2007 Deaflympic Games and the organizing board for Deaf Studies, Today!, He is heavily involved with Deaf technology projects including Deaftv.com and the Deaf World Library.