“Decisions? Decisions!
A Practical Guide for Sign
Language Professionals
Janice H. Humphrey
A Summary
Chapter Three: The Ethics of
Professional Competence
 1.0 Be a Competent Practitioner:
 A competent Sign Language
interpreter can be described as
having:
 A) Bilingual/bicultural knowledge and
skills necessary to determine the intent
and spirit of a speaker and to express
that intent and spirit in an equivalent
manner in the target language and
culture;
Chapter Three: The Ethics of Professional
Competence
 A competent Sign Language interpreter can be
described as having:
 B) Flexibile communication abilities in order to
meet each client’s preferred language or
communication mode and to manage register,
geographic, gender and age variations;
 C) Knowledge of setting-specific protocol, the
ability to behave professionally and to provide
competent service, given the specific
assignment (client, setting, topic of interaction,
type of skills required, etc);
Chapter Three: The Ethics of Professional
Competence
 A competent Sign Language interpreter can be
described as having:
 D) Graduated from appropriate educational
programs and holding professional
certification(s).
 E) Demonstrated commitment to continuing
professional development in oprder to
expand areas of competence and better
serve clientele.
Chapter Three: The Ethics of Professional
Competence
 1.1 Possess bilingual and bicultural
knowledge and skills that support
appropriate community interaction leading
to formal or informal community
endorsement.
 A) accommodate age, gender, geographic and
register variations;
 B) communicate effectively with native users of
the language as well as with individuals of
limited language competence;
 C) use technical, specialized, and general
terminology
Chapter Three: The Ethics of Professional
Competence
 In addition, all Sign Language professionals should
understand the following aspects of both mainstream
hearing and Deaf culture as defined by Philip (1986a,
1986b):
 A) Tangible (material)- physical items and artifacts
representative of a culture such as video-telephones,
TTYs, email, visual & auditory alert devices, etc.
 B) Normative – the values, beliefs, and norms of
social interaction that can be observed, copied, and
eventually learned by a newcomer to the culture
including turn-taking signals, greeting and leavetaking behaviors; and
 C) Cognitive-the unwritten, subtle, and complex
essence of a culture that is virtually invisible to the
foreign sojourner. Conferred community membership
determining in-group and out-group status is one
example of this aspect of culture.
Chapter Three: The Ethics of Professional
Competence
 Appropriate community interaction:
 Interpreters are expected to interact socially but
they are also expected to know how to establish
invisible boundaries between themselves and
members of the community with whom they
work in sensitive settings.
 Interpreters mediate communication between
members of the Deaf and the hearing
communities… An Interpreter’s language abilities
must be above average in both English and ASL.
Language competency for interpreters also
includes the concept of “word attack” skills that
help a language user determine the meaning of
unfamiliar linguistic items when used in context.