Sign Language Interpreter
Sign Language Interpreter
Career Overview
Sign Language Interpreters help Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing people communicate by interpreting between a signed language and a spoken language. They work in education, healthcare, business, legal settings, media, community services, and many other environments.
Education
Post-secondary training is important for this career. Programs in sign language interpretation typically include advanced sign-language skills, interpreting techniques, Deaf culture, ethics, linguistics, and practical experience. Depending on the country and credential, training may lead to a diploma, advanced diploma, or bachelor’s degree, followed by professional certification or assessment.
Work Environment
Sign Language Interpreters can work in schools, colleges, hospitals, courtrooms, workplaces, conferences, community organizations, performing arts, and video-relay services. Some work for organizations, while others work independently or on a contract basis.
Future Outlook
The need for accessible communication continues to create opportunities for skilled interpreters. Video-relay services and other digital communication are expanding access, while AI and automated translation tools are improving quickly. Human interpreters remain important where accuracy, cultural understanding, confidentiality, judgment, and real-time communication are essential.
Recommended High School Courses
- Psychology
- Communication
- Social studies
- English
- A Second Language
- American Sign Language (ASL)
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
- Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Foreign Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
- Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
- Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
- Telecommunications - Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
- Auditory Attention - The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Hearing Sensitivity - The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Perceptual Speed - The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Speed of Closure - The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Time Sharing - The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Translate information for others.
- Compile technical information or documentation.
- Edit written materials.
- Verify accuracy of data.
- Conduct research to inform art, designs, or other work.
- Train others on work processes.
- Confer with clients to determine needs.
- Provide educational information to the public.
Schools
Augustana University
Baylor University
Bethel University (indian...
College Of Dupage
Fresno City College
Gardner-webb University
Idaho State University- M...
Minneapolis Community And...
Montclair State Universit...
Moraine Valley Community...
New York University
North Central University
Portland Community Colleg...
Salt Lake Community Colle...
Suffolk County Community...
University Of Houston
Douglas College- Coqui...
Durham College- Oshawa...
George Brown College-...
Nova Scotia Community...
Vancouver Community Co...
Vanier College
Potential Scholarships
Girlfriends College Or Un...
Indspire Building Brighte...
Horatio Alger Canadian Un...
Terry Fox Humanitarian Aw...
Td Scholarships For Commu...
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$37,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$60,000.00 /yr
High End:
$104,000.00 /yr
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.