COMPENETRACIÓN: Expectations and desires of the Deaf community concerning sign language interpreting services in Spain

The perspectives of the Deaf community regarding sign language interpreting have hardly been addressed in academic publications. However, Deaf people have a crucial role in identifying and pointing out best practices in interpreting. This study explores the expectations and desires of the Deaf community in Spain concerning sign language interpreting services through individual interviews. The aim is to identify the qualities most highly regarded and the attributes they expect interpreters to embody, ultimately leading to an approximation of the interpreter model(s) Deaf people want to embrace. These conversations highlighted that a combination of linguistic knowledge, interpreting techniques and cultural sensitivity is what Deaf people expect from interpreters. Interpersonal components such as ‘connection’, ‘trust’ an ‘empathy’ have been demonstrated to play a key role in successful interpretation. Deaf cultural awareness and respectful attitudes towards the community have been proven to be equally important to language skills. In contrast, this study shows that the structural limitations of public interpreting services and the precarious working conditions of professionals have a strong impact on the level of satisfaction expressed by Deaf people