Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services coordinates professional American Sign Language interpreting services for courts, hospitals, colleges, state and county government, mental health agencies, performing arts venues, conference facilities and all types of businesses, filling approximately 400 assignments per month in 27 counties.
It utilizes a roster of 70 or so interpreters to fill these assignments. And in early January, it thanked those interpreters with spa services at Heidi Christine’s Salon & Spa in Caledonia.
Thanking its cadre of hard-working interpreters was a no-brainer said Linda Vander Leek, the interpreter services specialist for D&HHS. She noted that in 2019 D&HHS filled more than 5,000 jobs totaling almost 13,000 hours, but that the agency had almost 800 requests that had to be turned down because no interpreter was available.
“Our biggest challenge,” she said, “is the statewide shortage of interpreters. In the past two years, we’ve seen a large increase in requests, but jobs go unfilled every month and these are often urgent care or ER requests, due to their last-minute nature. Our goal is to support our Deaf community by growing our interpreter community.
“An event like the spa day is a way to thank our loyal and valuable interpreters and also, we hope, encourage new interpreters. They are inundated with requests for interpreting daily, and we wanted to take a day to thank them for all they do to bring equal access to communication to the community.”
Interpreter Betsy Fein Jackson summed up the sentiments of all of the attendees with a heartfelt social media post.
She wrote: “As self-employed community interpreters, we don’t have an office to go to, a closet to hang our coats in, no comrades to chat with … we go from job to job, day in and day out, often with no interaction with our peers. Tonight though D&HHS gave us a space to catch up with each other while being pampered. While I can say from experience that the staff of D&HHS are always enjoyable to work with, they also make sure to express their appreciation when we pick up extra work or fill in something last minute. But tonight was another level of appreciation.”
For more information on the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services visit their website at deafhhs.org.
