Bringing people together with sign language interpretation.

The industry standard calls for a team of two interpreters on anything longer than an hour of continuous interpreting. The work is mentally tiring, accuracy drops without breaks, and the repetitive motion can cause injury. A second interpreter gives each one relief and a backup, so the message stays accurate. Teams usually swap about every 20 minutes. Not every assignment needs two interpreters, so we decide that case by case.

It is usually not a good idea. There is no guarantee of a family member’s skill, and they may not know the terminology used in the setting. Professional interpreters have worked in many settings and follow a strict Code of Ethics. Being able to chat in sign language is not the same as interpreting, which takes real training and national certification from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID).

A 48-hour notice is required from the time of our service agreement to cancel without charge. If you cancel within less than 48 hours’ notice, you will be billed for the scheduled time. Cancellations with ample notice allow the interpreter to schedule other work for that time frame.

Lip reading involves a lot of guesswork. Roughly 40 to 60 percent of English sounds look alike on the lips, and even the best lip readers catch only about 25 to 30 percent of what is said. A short greeting like “Hello, how are you?” is easy enough to pick up from context, but the details of a real conversation are easy to miss or get wrong.