Report on the first European seminar on Sign language interpreting on TV and media
/In November 2019 the first European seminar on signed language interpreting on TV and media took place. The newly published report that I wrote with Sheyla Perez and Paal Richard Peterson provides an insight into current topics on sign language interpreting on TV and media. They topics encompass best practices and challenges collected before and during the seminar. The seminar was attended by nearly ninety sign language interpreters and experts from Europe and elsewhere. It is apparent that interpreters on TV are faced with multiple and complex demands. These demands are outlined along with research findings on audience preferences, such as how the interpreter is displayed on the screen, preparation methods by interpreters, and specific interpreting strategies for interpreting on camera. Overall, the main outcome of the seminar was that there is an urgent need for a specialized training for sign language interpreters working on TV and media. In 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in a spike of sign language interpreters on TV and media shortly after the seminar only made that need more pressing.
