Meet one of the City of Detroit’s sign language interpreters

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If you attend a meeting for the City of Detroit or watch one online, you’re likely to see a few sign language interpreters taking turns, conveying what’s happening in the meeting for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Seven percent of Detroiters are deaf, deaf-blind or hard of hearing, according to a report published in 2019 by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.

Stephanie Beatty is one of a handful of contractors employed by the city to interpret meetings, press conferences, announcements and more through sign language. Outlier Media sat down with Beatty before she worked to interpret the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners meeting last Thursday.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Outlier Media: How did you become an interpreter?

Stephanie Beatty: This is actually my second life. I initially was working in human services with foster youth and adopted youth, and I started looking for something else to get into. I did a little bit of interpreting at my church … I didn’t really know a lot, but I was confident enough to get up in front of the congregation and follow the lead of our guides.

I had a very well known Black male interpreter — very well known in the Deaf community, he’s hearing. We had a program at my church, and he came up to me afterwards, and he said, “You got it. You just need to trust yourself.” … I’m thankful to him for approaching me and feeling confident enough in me to know that I can do this work, because being an interpreter — an American Sign Language interpreter — is not easy. Not at all.

How and when did you learn the language?

This was in 2001 when I initially started learning through my church. I officially went back to school in 2005 to formally learn the language because learning it socially and informally are different things …

I graduated from my program, became certified and just kept moving, working in the community, being around members of the Deaf community, working around members of the Deaf community, volunteering at different events, and it just flourished from there.

There are different types of sign language. Given that you’re working here in Detroit, when you interpret, do you use American Sign Language, Black American Sign Language or something else?

It can be a combination of American Sign Language and signed English, depending on what is being presented. And it can also be some Black ASL depending on the presenter and the audience. So it just depends on who it’s for, what it’s for, that kind of thing.

Is it difficult to keep up with all the information in the meetings to interpret it?

It can be. Sometimes, the meetings go very long and they’re very dense. The information is very heavy. But that’s the point of having a team interpreter. So we feed off of each other. If my team interpreter sees that I miss something or I’m feeling a little bit drained, then they can pick up and vice versa.

And if it’s a topic that’s extremely sensitive to one of us — because we’re people, too, right? — and we are feeling sensitive about that topic, then the other one can pick up and continue. So having a team member definitely does help with some of that load.

What do you do when people talk on top of each other? How do you interpret that?

The person who’s interpreting … they will let the audience know that there’s several people talking at the same time. Meanwhile, the interpreter that’s waiting or that’s the “off” interpreter will kind of tap the person who is in control of the event and let them know, “Hey, interpreters are here. Remember, we need one person at a time. We can’t appropriately present the information if everyone’s talking at the same time.” And they usually step in and remind people.

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What can public bodies or public commenters do to help interpreters do their job?

Be mindful that there are interpreters present … When people read (aloud), they tend to speed read … Just be mindful of that, and be mindful that the interpreters are people, not machines … We have the source language where we’re actually interpreting, not translating it, into the target language.

English and ASL are different. It takes a little bit of time to get that information out there. And … they’re signs. Signs don’t match words, signs match concepts. So whereas (the speaker) may say an English word, I may have to go into a little bit more of an expansion to present that information and to be conceptually accurate.

Are technological developments threatening to make interpreting obsolete?

Oh, absolutely not.

Technology has always been around for the Deaf community … It has really grown and allowed the Deaf community to participate in areas where they were not included. So, having technology is wonderful.

But I have heard numerous members of the Deaf community say that technology cannot replace interpreters … Technology can’t convey the language with the emphasis and the body language and the expression that a live interpreter can.

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