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How many times has a colleague approached you with, \u201cThe other day [fill in the blank] happened to me. What do you think I should have done?\u201d<\/p>\nHow many times has a colleague approached you with, \u201cThe other day [fill in the blank] happened to me. What do you think I should have done?\u201d<\/p>\n
When confronted with an ethical problem\u2014as opposed to an ethical dilemma which is where one must choose between two conflicting codes, inevitably transgressing one of them\u2014, one approach to answering the question, \u201cHow should I behave?\u201d is to emphasize your moral duties by identifying which ethical values you must uphold. Here, interpreters should refer to their code of professional responsibility to figure out what their positive and negative duties are as well as what they can get away with. This may be a code of practice that regulates the profession, a code of ethics that sets out the ethical values that underpin the organization to which they belong or a code of conduct that restricts their behavior. I call this the \u201cApply RFP\u201d recipe in which interpreters must consider what is ethically Required, Forbidden and Permissible. In other words, what you must do, what you must not do and what you may do.<\/p>\n
In a practicing profession such as interpreting, practitioners work in close contact with those who use their professional services, within socially constructed dynamics. In these professions, it is common to find that contextual factors interfere with the practitioner\u2019s ability to adhere to their code of professional responsibility. Ethicist Robyn Dean places contextual factors into four categories: environmental (specific to the setting), interpersonal (specific to the interaction between interpreters and consumers), paralinguistic (specific to the expressive language qualities of consumers) and intrapersonal (specific to the feelings and thoughts of the interpreter).<\/p>\n
The ethical problem described below demonstrates that there are contextual factors outside of language and culture that impact the interpreter\u2019s ability to adhere to their code of professional responsibility. This is an important point that Dean[1]<\/a> makes in her presentations on the Demand Control Schema ethical theory. Another important factor in this theory is that interpreters have the power to apply controls (multiple instances for decision-making) that modify the outcome of an ethical problem.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at a specific ethical problem and determine negative duties, positive duties, controls and ethically permissible solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cI just had a situation at a bench trial via WebEx today.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYesterday, the coordinator from State A (not the one I reside in) told me the court had hired a second interpreter for today\u2019s bench trial.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Now, we\u2019ll move on to the core of the ethical problem:<\/p>\n \u201cI asked this second interpreter to contact me so we could go over the handover times and whatnot. Well, it turned out that the interpreter is court certified in another language and only qualified by State B for the language needed at the bench trial. I could tell that this interpreter wasn\u2019t fluent in the needed language. The interpreter asked me to take over in case she had difficulty and I said \u2018I can\u2019t interpret by myself\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI reached out the coordinator and reported that my teammate wasn\u2019t fluent in the language needed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe coordinator said she was going to talk to another coordinator. I have emails proving that I reported the impediment to the coordinator. The court didn\u2019t change interpreters, and it was terrible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Welcome to the garden of the forking paths! The court may:<\/p>\n a)\u00a0 decide to postpone the trial until they find a suitable teammate. You\u2019re off the hook!<\/p>\n b)\u00a0\u00a0 order you to proceed assisting your current teammate and correcting any mistakes. The ball is in your court now. Will you be able to interpret accurately despite your teammate\u2019s incompetence?<\/p>\n c)\u00a0 order you to proceed by yourself. The ball is in your court now. Will you be able to interpret accurately by yourself for the entire duration of the bench trial?<\/p>\n Ethical problems can be solved by identifying any contextual factors (e.g., interpreter coordinator not doing their job, interpreter not fluent in the language needed) that interfere with our ability to adhere to our code of professional responsibility. Interpreters are not powerless! We can control any problematic situation through our own ethical decision-making.<\/p>\n Speaking of power, here is an advocacy action item: We can ask Professional associations (e.g., ATA, NAJIT) to lobby the National Center for State Courts<\/a> and the Administrative Office of the Courts in each state to adopt standardized requirements and terminology for the different categories of court interpreters (certified, registered, qualified). And that is interpreters exercising our collective power.<\/p>\n For more resources on ethics, see:<\/p>\n <\/a>[1] ATA Interpreters Division Blog, Interview \u2013 Robyn Dean on Ethics: Metaphors or Values?\u00a0 https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/ID\/blog\/interview-robyn-dean-on-ethics-metaphors-or-values\/<\/a>\u00a0 October 13, 2016.<\/p>\n <\/a>[2] Washington State General Rule 11.4(d)(2) \u201cAn interpreter working alone must be given a ten-minute (10) break after every twenty (20) minutes of interpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Milena Calderari-Waldron is a member of the Interpreters Division Leadership Council.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Image of question marks banner by geralt<\/a> via pixabay<\/span><\/p>\n By Milena Calderari-Waldron How many times has a colleague approached you with, \u201cThe other day [fill in the blank] happened to me. What do you think I should have done?\u201d When confronted with an ethical problem\u2014as opposed to an ethical dilemma which is where one must choose between two conflicting codes, inevitably transgressing one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[173,123],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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Finding our power<\/h3>\n
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In addition to our email forum<\/a> and the range of services on our website, such as the Blog<\/a> and a Resources<\/a> page, the ATA Interpreters Division invites members to connect with us on social media. Join the conversations on LinkedIn<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Facebook<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"