efsli 2024 Qualified. What next?

European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters Conference

At the annual efsli conference – September 14 & 15 2024, Torino (Italy) – participants from all over Europe and the world gathered to discuss how the signed language interpreting profession is shaped once SLIs are qualified. Presentations covered training, qualification, continuous professional development, registries of SLI, reflexivity, power & privilege and many more fascinating topics.

I had the honour to present the results of the recent research conducted in Belgium (Flanders) on the sustainability of the signed language profession. An earlier post reported on this research (Dutch and Flemish Sign Language only), and this was the first opportunity to engage with an international audience regarding the results. The presentation – PPT can be downloaded here –  focused on a very small portion of the findings. The full research covered many more topics and had more data as you will see in the full report (Dutch).

The response of the conference attendees was inspiring and it seems that many are interested in conducting the same research in their country or region. To support this, I am happy to share the survey battery which can be adapted to the context of the profession in each country and region. Get in touch with me (isabelle@strategicinterpreting.blog) if you would like to receive a copy of the survey questions to conduct this research in your country or region.

Published by

Unknown's avatar

Isabelle Heyerick

My area of expertise is signed language interpreting and my research is situated on the intersection of (applied) linguistics, intercultural studies and language ideologies. I hold a PhD in Linguistics, a MA in Linguistics and a MA in Interpreting. My PhD is a first exploration of which linguistic interpreting strategies Flemish Sign Language interpreters use and why. My postdoctoral research investigated how discourses and ideologies about deaf people and signed languages prevalent in both the majority society and in the Deaf communities influence the linguistic decisions signed language interpreters make in their actual practice. Currently I am an Assistant Professor in Applied Sign Linguistics at the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). I am the secretary of the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters and the vice-president of Tenuto, an organisation offering continuous professional development for sign language interpreters.

Leave a comment