Preparation of Individuals Who Are Visually Impaired for Employment as Spanish Interpreters

Unemployment rates of individuals with visual impairments (that is, those who are blind or have low vision) are well-documented in the field (McDonnall & Sui, 2019). As individuals who prepare professionals to work with the visually impaired community, the authors are shifting our focus from preparing folks who work with this population to the population itself and a potential career path that may help reduce the percentage of unemployed people with visual impairments in the United States. A proposed solution to the unemployment rate of individuals with visual impairments offered in this article is training Spanish speakers who are visually impaired to become Spanish interpreters. Interpreting was selected as a viable pathway to employment because it requires the professional to work with the spoken word (U.S. Department of Labor, 2021c). It presents fewer accessibility barriers than translating, which requires the professional to work with written documents that may not be in an accessible format (e.g., images, inaccessible file types). The authors believe that with proper advisement and subsequent training, fluent Spanish-speaking students who are visually impaired could find employment in the field of interpretation either in the court system or in the medical field.

The available literature indicates that there is a large, nationwide demand for Spanish interpreters. Specialists in the field believe that the need will grow larger in the coming decades given that the number of Spanish-only speakers will increase dramatically in the United States (Cabrera, 2017). According to the Department of Labor, “employment of interpreters and translators is projected to grow 24 percent from 2020 to 2030” (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021b, paragraph 1). This number is well above the 8% average growth that is predicted for all other occupations included in the employment projections program (2021b). The growing Hispanic population in the Unites States further suggests that growth prospects in this field will remain particularly strong (Cabrera, 2017). There is a sizeable need for Spanish interpreters in the legal system and in the medical field, thus, it is contended that this field can hold great promise for persons who are visually impaired to overcome the many impediments in their attempts to obtain gainful employment. Both routes to successful employment require considerable bilingual training and with appropriate guidance from their teacher of students with visual impairments, this may be an option for heritage speakers of Spanish who are visually impaired.

The research regarding employment figures for individuals who are visually impaired indicates that it is difficult for many individuals who have little or no sight to obtain gainful employment. According to a recent article from the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness written by McDonnall and Sui (2019):

the most current ACS [American Community Survey] data indicate that approximately 44% of the U.S. population with a visual impairment is employed, while 10% of people with a visual impairment (who are in the labor force) are unemployed. These statistics leave approximately half of the U.S. population of people with visual impairments (50.9%) out of the labor force. (pp. 490–491)

It is proposed, therefore, that students who enter our nation's education enterprise who emanate from bilingual homes where Spanish is spoken commonly may be able to benefit from their experience as heritage speakers of Spanish.

Pathway to Employment as a Spanish Interpreter

The ability to speak Spanish because of being raised in a Spanish-speaking home does not in any way qualify those individuals for a position as an interpreter. To be qualified to assume a position as a Spanish interpreter in the legal system or in medical facilities requires considerable training at the university level and proficiency in at least two languages (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021a). Guidance that teachers might offer to heritage speakers of Spanish whom they may have on their caseloads is specifically outlined next. At this point, the authors of the current report wish to indicate that they believe that their recommendations are valid only for younger, middle school, or high school students. The reader should be cautioned against the belief that these recommendations are valid for older individuals who are blind or who have lost their sight at a later age. The individuals with visual impairments who have the goal to become an interpreter may want to consider the steps outlined below after they have explored career options and have determined they would like to pursue employment as an interpreter.

Secondary School Training in Spanish

A heritage speaker needs considerable formal training in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding standard Spanish. This training should begin as early as possible in the education pathway for students with visual impairments. If the student attends a school district in which formal training in Spanish takes place, the student with visual impairments should be encouraged to enroll in as many Spanish language courses that are offered by the student's school district. The optimal option, should it exist, is to enroll the student with visual impairments in a Spanish “immersion” school, in which, for a large portion of the school day, all instruction takes place in Spanish, while the other portion of the school day is devoted to instruction in English. It is noted that this option is not available to a large number of students in the United States and other countries. This suggestion is presented as the best option for the student with visual impairments should it be available.

Assistive Technology Training

For a student with visual impairments who is bilingual and wishes to optimize their fluency in both English and Spanish, it is recommended that the individual be afforded the proper training in the appropriate assistive technology. In this situation, it is recommended that the student with visual impairments be trained to use Jobs Access With Speech (JAWS) or Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA), the major screen reading software options for student who cannot access print using their vision. In addition, that student with visual impairments should be taught to use a braille display in conjunction with JAWS or NVDA. JAWS and NVDA are recommended in this article due to the research available with accessing foreign languages using a refreshable braille display with both JAWS and NVDA (Kapperman et al., 2018a, 2018b, 2021a, 2022).

It is recommended JAWS or NVDA and a refreshable braille display be used because that technology can be used in English and Spanish (Kapperman et al., 2018a, 2018b, 2021a, 2021b, 2022). The student should be taught to read Spanish braille (that is, uncontracted braille with special characters that represent accented letters) as well as English braille. In addition to being able to use JAWS or NVDA expertly, proficient use of the prescribed assistive technology will allow the student with visual impairments to access Spanish language course material studied during middle and high school education, where available. If the student with visual impairments is proficient in assistive technology use before exiting high school, the student with visual impairments will likely be better prepared to study Spanish language courses as an undergraduate student at a university.

Postsecondary Training and Certification

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021a), interpreters typically need, at a minimum, a bachelor's degree. An even more important requirement is that the individual be fluent in at least two languages (English and one other language). In addition to language proficiency, students should take courses in which they learn legal and medical terminology, in addition to courses that focus on language-interpreting skills to address “diction, phonetics, composition and translation processes” (Learn.org, 2022, Step 3: Obtain a Bachelor's Degree). An additional recommendation for students with visual impairments who are interested in becoming an interpreter is to take a “broad range of courses that focus on foreign languages and English writing and comprehension” (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021a, Education).

After obtaining a bachelor's degree while immersed in the study of Spanish and other courses that would expose the learner to discipline-specific vocabulary, the student with visual impairments will be well-prepared to pass the certification exams required to obtain proper licensure. The appropriate training programs provide the learner with an understanding of the U.S. judicial and medical systems. Currently, there is no universal certification required of interpreters. For court and medical interpreters, however, they are required to pass state court interpreting exams or, in some instances, can take multiple tests to show interpreting proficiency (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021a). There is a small number of university-level interpreter certificate programs in various universities across the United States (Learn.org, 2022). The authors recommend that a thorough search for an appropriate program be conducted to advise any student who may wish to pursue this avenue to gainful employment.

Once the individual with visual impairments has completed training as a language interpreter, they must obtain certification in the specific area of concentration. That is, in order to be employed as an interpreter in the court system in the United States, one must obtain certification. Court interpretation takes place at the state and national levels, but individual states have their own specific pathway to certification. These requirements include a specific number of hours of training and the successful completion of certification exams. The same situation holds for employment as an interpreter in the medical field. The Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI) is the most common source for certification in the medical field. Another similar resource is the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (for more information, visit: www.certifiedmedicalinterpreters.org).

Conclusion

The authors believe that the work requirements of a language interpreter can be carried out by a well-trained individual who is visually impaired. Occasionally, there is a small amount of written material that may be required to be translated verbally. In those cases, the written material frequently consists of documents that are similar in nature in the vast majority of cases. For example, in the medical field, the documents that require consent on the part of the patient are the same in all similar cases. These documents can be converted into an accessible form such as braille which can be read by the interpreter by reading this information using a braille display. This “sight translation” occurs more frequently in the court system. In very unusual circumstances, if an English language document has not been converted to an accessible form, any sighted coworker could read the document as the interpreter speaks the content in Spanish.

In the field of interpretation, various options for work arrangements exist. For example, some positions require interpretation using only a telephone, whereby the interpreter listens to the English content broadcast over a telephone system and the interpreter translates the spoken content into Spanish. In other situations, “conference” interpretation is the focus of the position. In this situation, the interpreter is stationed at a location where they listen to the utterances of speakers at a conference and simultaneously interpret the spoken content into the second language.

Although Spanish language interpreting was the focus of this report, the process can be applied to other languages, as well. The point made in this report is that circumstances are such that with the proper training and the use of the appropriate assistive technology, individuals who are visually impaired can obtain life-long employment as language interpreters.