Deaf community makes urgent appeal for more interpreters

As we mark at the end of National Accessibility Week today, what are the issues facing the deaf and hard hearing community in Quebec? Joining me to talk about the challenges is the Chief Strategy Officer of the Visual and Tactile Interpretation Service, also known as Sivet, Cynthia Benoit. And Cynthia is joined by ASL English interpreter Liz Scully. Thank you both for coming in this morning. I appreciate it. So Cynthia, can you start by telling it telling us a bit about SEVA and your mission there? My well at SEVA? Well, first of all, SEVA itself is an agency. It's a non profit here in Quebec that offers interpretation service in LSQ, the French Sign Language and French. And here it's not just from Montreal, but other regions as well. And we develop, in particular, I developed the strategies and trying to get the word out there that such a service exists. And this morning is about getting the word out there and some of the issues and challenges that you are currently facing. Can you outline some of those challenges for us? Certainly the biggest challenge we have right now is the shortage of interpreters. Just to give you an idea, for example, in 2018, we had about 19,000 / 19,000 requests for interpreting and now we have a 30% increase. And if we look at the increase of interpreters from graduating from the interpreter training program, that's only 5%. And now we have the Canada Accessible Canada Act, so that's going to increase the number of demands for interpretation and interpreters. So we can see that the pace of graduation is not keeping up with the the demand and we're going to hit a wall soon when that demand becomes too much. And what does the shortage of interpreters mean to your quality of life and the quality of life of the deaf and hard of hearing community? Well, yeah. You know, it has a huge impact on the community. Just again, to give you an idea, suppose you find out that you have cancer, you know, you're at the hospital and you meet with the doctor and you might get information without interpretation. That's maybe a sentence or two. And there's no two way communication with the doctor. Can you imagine that is what deaf people experience if they if they go to such appointments without an interpreter? And, and so our number one concern is access to health care and as you say, quality of life. It's also in improving mental health. But simple things like attending sporting events or cultural events and not having that ability to socialize means people then experience isolation. And so that is another impact on our community, the simple tasks that we all take for granted. Do you think that the profession is valued enough? And what would you want people to know about the profession if someone may be interested perhaps in entering it? Well, if people are interested in becoming an interpreter, they have to have the skill in the sign language, LSQ on the French side, ASL on the English side, American Sign Language. And they also have to learn the interpreting process, which comes later. But unfortunately people are finding out about the career when they've already started their career or they've already gone through university and now they realise, oh, there's a job and I can do this. And so like I say, the demand is increasing so fast and the number of interpreters that are out there is not really keeping up the pace because people don't think of even becoming an interpreter. They don't see them out there, they don't know. And it becomes almost a vicious circle. And when it comes to becoming an interpreter, well, the first thing you do need is to know the signed language. And it's not just a sign language. You have to know the spoken language too. And then the interpreting process. You learn the interpreting process after you have the the language. And so again, if I look to the French side on the LSQ program, we had just five graduates in the in the latest cohort. Unbelievable. OK, So what is what can people do then for people watching right now? Where can they go For more information, look into more information if in case they're interested in pursuing this. Well, the information you can look in your locale, for example, Sieve has its website and also on the English side there's the MAB Makai Center. Look for LSQ courses and ASL courses as well. Just, you know, really Google, who's going to become your best friend, Google word of mouth. And that is what we tried to do this morning is to raise awareness about this important issue. And I really appreciate you, Cynthia, for coming in this morning. Liz, to you as well. Thank you so much.