Health care accessibility and the role of sign language interpreters

In healthcare, the accuracy of interpretation is the most critical component of safe and effective communication between providers and patients in medical settings characterized by language and cultural barriers. Although medical education should prepare healthcare providers for common issues they will face in practice, their training often does not adequately teach the communication skills necessary to work with patients who use interpreters. This new volume in the Studies in Interpretation series addresses critical topics in communication in healthcare settings around the world. Investigations in Healthcare Interpreting consists of ten chapters contributed by a broad array of international scholars. They address topics as diverse as the co-construction of medical conversation between interlocutors, healthcare interpretation in Ireland, and how interpreters make requests for clarification in their work. Using a variety of methodological approaches including ethnography, questionnaires, observation, and diary accounts, these scholars report on trials of simultaneous video interpreting in Austrian hospitals; direct, interpreted, and translated healthcare information for Australian deaf people; the interpretation of medical interview questions from English into ASL; and specialized psychological/psychiatric diagnostic tests for deaf and hard of hearing clients. Researchers, practitioners, and students, as well as all healthcare professionals, will find this volume to be an invaluable resource