One fifth of the requested hours for sign language interpreters were not filled last year. “Sign language interpreting is very difficult physically and mentally.”
Deaf and hearing-impaired people are entitled to a free sign language interpreter in many situations, so that they can participate in normal life. This applies, for example, at school or at work.
But unfortunately one fifth of the hours requested cannot be filled, says the Flemish Communication Assistance Bureau (CAB), which is responsible for requests for free sign language interpreters in Flanders. Last year the CAB awarded 104,283 interpreting hours, but there were requests for 130,000 hours.
“In education, every entitled person must always be able to count on a sign language interpreter, but sometimes we can only meet the demand in a quarter of the cases,” Lieven Kind, head of CAB, told De Zondag.
Elective
One explanation for the shortage is that the hours are poorly paid. Interpreters today receive 55 euros per hour, but that is 15 euros below the wages of neighboring countries. Three quarters of the interpreters do the job part-time as a secondary profession. “Sign language interpreting is very difficult physically and mentally,” says Kind. “There are studies that say you can interpret for a maximum of 28 hours per week.”
To make the profession better known, Kind proposes that students take the profession at school. “In England, sign language is an optional subject in secondary school. We can also take that step here.”
