Laurie Swabey, Richard Laurion, Carol Patrie, Rosa Ramirez
CATIE Center at St. Catherine University
Abstract
In 2008 the National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers (NCIEC) conducted a national needs assessment survey asking Deaf people about their healthcare needs and experiences. Deaf people identified healthcare as the most important setting to have an interpreter (NIEC, 2008, 2015). However, there is no systematic entry to, or professional development within healthcare interpreting. Many states allow interpreters, regardless of qualifications, to accept assignments in healthcare. There is no way to measure the potential risk of allowing unqualified interpreters to work in high stakes settings such as healthcare provision. The Healthcare Interpreting Career Lattice developed by the CATIE Center in collaboration with NCIEC is a step toward responding to concerns of consumers, establishing quality control, and eventual certification in healthcare interpreting for ASL-English interpreters. This article describes how the Healthcare Interpreting Career Lattice was developed and how it can be used by educators, students, working interpreters, agencies, and healthcare providers.
Keywords: healthcare, healthcare interpreting, healthcare interpreting education, career lattice, American Sign Language (ASL)-English interpreting