Several deaf people experience not being assigned an interpreter, even when they are entitled to it.
The student Kaja Bråten (24) was born deaf, and is dependent on an interpreter in everyday school life. Nevertheless, she experiences that the Interpreting Service repeatedly fails her.
– The worst thing that can happen when I am not assigned an interpreter for a meeting is that I do not get involved in group work or discussions, and thus fall off, she despairs.
She is halfway into her bachelor’s degree Training and coaching at Kristiania University College. The study program combines theory with practical training theory, and the school arranges gatherings every fourth weekend, from Thursday to Sunday, every semester.
– Training is something I am passionate about, and is a field I want to work with. But if there is no interpreter available for the teaching, I am not sure if I will be able to complete, Bråten says.
Today, NAV’s Assistive Technology Center is responsible for the Interpreting Service, a service to the deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind according to the National Insurance Act. Nevertheless, the agency’s permanent employees have only covered 51 per cent of all solved interpreting tasks this year.
After ordinary working hours, the agency mostly relies on freelancers, this also applies on weekends. NAV is now struggling to find freelancers for interpreting assignments.
Requirement for two interpreters
Kaja’s study sessions take place after ordinary working hours. In addition, the sessions last for several hours. Thus, NAV is obliged to assign two interpreters. This is because the interpreters should not be overworked by the intense workload that close follow-up requires.
Often not a single interpreter shows up.
This year alone, NAV has been without an interpreter in more than 5,300 interpreting assignments, the agency informs TV 2. At the same time, they emphasize that they give high priority to the interpreting service in working life and education.
Read the entire answer from NAV further down in the case.
In October, a NAV employee writes that the agency “has not received any response from interpreters this weekend, and no interpreting assignments have been canceled yet” to Kaja Bråten.
– DESPAIR: Kaja Bråten is afraid of ironing out because she is not assigned an interpreter for the teaching. Photo: Guro Asdøl Midtmageli
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Later that day, she is told that she must manage on her own.
“Unfortunately, there will be no interpreter this weekend. Sorry about this », the employee states. Only excerpts from the e-mail correspondence between Kaja and NAV have been used. See picture of the e-mail below.
This is not the first time Kaja has not been assigned an interpreter. In the autumn of 2020, she was only assigned an interpreter for about half of the days she was at the gathering, she informs TV 2.
TV 2 has also been in contact with the student Petrine Olgeirsdottir (27), who was also born deaf. She is in her first year of training and coaching at Kristiania University College. She says she has only been assigned an interpreter seven out of 13 days she has been to a gathering.
TV 2 has seen the correspondence between NAV and the two students for the autumn semester 2021.
“We simply do not have enough interpreting resources, and we have really tried everything to make it happen. There are many other assignments that are also canceled today. »
Canceled all assignments indefinitely
Today’s interpreting service is reprehensible, says advisor Adriana Fjellaker in the Norwegian Association of the Deaf. The association wants a 24-hour interpreting service, and that interpreters are defined as a socially critical profession.
She says that the supply of interpreters deteriorated acutely during the pandemic. The reason was that the Interpreting Service canceled all assignments indefinitely. TV 2 has an e-mail from NAV confirming that this has been the case.
But after strong reactions from users and user organizations, including the Norwegian Association of the Deaf, the Interpreting Service agreed to interpret the most urgent needs, according to the adviser. In addition, a video solution was introduced in some cases.
– CRITICIZABLE: Interest policy adviser Adriana Fjellaker in the Norwegian Association of the Deaf thinks the current interpreting service is reprehensible. Photo: Private
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– The interpreting service then used permanent interpreters to cover these assignments, and many freelance interpreters lost the opportunity to earn a salary. They also received no compensation for lost earnings and then fell between two chairs, she says.
According to the Norwegian Association of the Deaf, several freelance interpreters chose to change professions or start studies during the summer of 2020.
Reads lips to understand the subject
Kaja Bråten has operated on a hearing tool, Cochlea implant, which allows her to hear if the surroundings are free of noise.
If she turns off the implant, everything becomes silent, and she has to read her lips.
In a school context – especially at a training session – the interpreter therefore becomes an important reassurance that Kaja will receive the same learning outcomes as her fellow students.
– Deaf students are just like hearing students and have their goals, plans, wishes and thoughts about the future, says Adriana Fjellaker in the Norwegian Association of the Deaf.
She believes that the poor organization of interpreters means that students either have to take the study again, postpone courses and subjects, or complete the study with worse grades than expected.
Furthermore, she adds that also deaf children and adults with leisure activities, deaf workers who go on night shifts, and deaf parents who are going to a parent-teacher meeting are affected.
The absence of interpreters challenges the rights of the deaf to participate in society on an equal footing with others, in addition to being in conflict with an international convention, she believes.
The UN Convention shall protect against discrimination
Equality and Discrimination Ombudsman May Schwartz points out that the right of the deaf to adapted education is stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
– FUNCTIONING AGENT: May Schwartz is acting agent until a new manager is in place. Photo: Thomas Eckhoff
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– Hearing-impaired people have the right to be able to take higher education in line with others, and the right to suitable individual accommodation during the education. This is stated in the Universities and University Colleges Act, and is anchored in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, she writes.
Norway ratified the CRPD Convention in 2013. However, unlike the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the CRPD Convention – which protects people with disabilities – does not trump Norwegian law.
The last time the proposal to incorporate the CRPD into the Human Rights Act and incorporate it into Norwegian law was put forward was in April 2020.
In March this year, the Storting voted down the proposal.
Read the full answer to the Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombudsman here:
“We do not know the details of this specific case and therefore only comment on a general basis.
Hearing-impaired people have the right to be able to take higher education in line with others, and the right to suitable individual accommodation during the education. This is stated in the Universities and University Colleges Act, and is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
It should not be the case that people cannot complete the studies they have entered because the necessary and qualified sign language interpretation is not in place.
The ombud is familiar with the challenges surrounding the interpreting service, related to the time the service can be delivered, and the quality of the service itself. This is about several things, such as recruitment, working conditions and the way the interpreting service is organized. The goal and task of the interpreting service must be to deliver the right interpreter at the right time. This is crucial for fulfilling the right to education, work and participation in society, at the same time as Norway has a great need for people with high professional competence. “
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77,000 assignments
Today, NAV is responsible for the interpreting service in Norway. They do not want to be interviewed, but department director Jan Erik Gundtjernlien responds via e-mail via his communications consultant.
– MISSING INTERPRETER: E-mail correspondence between Kaja Bråten and NAV.
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– So far this year, we have received orders for over 77,000 interpreting assignments. Of these, 7 per cent have not been able to get an interpreter for NAV.
This means that NAV has not provided an interpreter for 5,390 interpreting assignments.
According to Gundtjernlien, NAV gives high priority to interpreting services in working life and education.
– Unfortunately, the situation is such that we do not have the opportunity to cover everything with our own employees. We therefore announce vacancies for freelance interpreters, where not everyone is covered, he writes.
– MISSING INTERPRETER: E-mail correspondence between Kaja Bråten and NAV.
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– What percentage of NAV’s interpreters (permanent employees) took on tasks beyond ordinary working hours?
– We do not have figures for this as of today. What we do know is that most interpreting services are now in the process of planning working hours for their employed interpreters in the evenings and on weekends. If necessary, overtime is also used in the evening and on weekends, he answers.
– What percentage of all interpreting tasks were taken by NAV’s permanent employees in 2020?
– The figures for 2020 are not representative, as this was a year strongly affected by the corona pandemic, NAV’s department director answers.
– This year, NAV also changed the interpreter ordering system. In a transitional phase, we used two different ordering systems, which makes it difficult to extract good statistics for the year 2020.
NAV’s own figures show that their employees covered 51 per cent of all interpreting assignments so far this year, of the assignments that have been completed. This is an improvement towards 2019, where NAV’s interpreters solved 44 per cent of all interpreting tasks.
Gundtjernlien states that they see an increase in the proportion of covered interpreting assignments, and points out three reasons:
- Fewer orders. In 2020, NAV experienced fewer orders as a result of the pandemic, which has increased capacity for permanent employees.
- Interpretation via screen. Around 19 per cent of interpreting services performed so far this year have been performed digitally.
- More positions. NAV opened for 39 new interpreting positions. In the autumn of 2021, all positions were filled.
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