Any way you look at it, the rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is transforming daily life. Whether you’ve leaned into AI tools to do your grunt work — from processing data and writing emails to generating your grocery list — or you’re skeptical about allowing machines to do your thinking, there’s no denying the world has flexed its creative muscles over the past few years in finding inventive ways for how to use AI.

An ethical AI use case

One of the most wholesome ideas for how to use AI stems from its ability to learn languages. Machine learning — a category of AI — taps into computers’ ability to quickly process and organize vast amounts of linguistic data. 

That capacity to master vocabulary, pronunciation, and language structure enables AI to convert speech-to-text or text-to-speech in practically any language instantaneously…and simultaneously: a multilingual human translator may be able to convert Japanese to English and English to Spanish, but AI can do both at the same time, making everyday connection across languages possible without planning or expertise.

We’re going to discuss how — and when — you can effectively leverage that power to generate connection, engagement, and understanding with all kinds of people:

• Why you need interpreting, translation, and captioning
• Use cases for real-time translation and captioning
• Choosing the right multilingual solution: when to use AI speech translation vs human interpreters
  • When to use an interpreter
  • When to use AI speech translation
  • Interpreting vs AI translation use case comparison
• Try using AI speech translation for language access

Why you need interpreting, translation, and captioning

The need for fast and reliable language services is no longer a niche demand. Economic and social shifts that drive globalization and multiculturalism have made interpreting and translation services an essential part of doing business and serving the public:

• More than 90% of the world’s population uses languages other than English as a primary language.¹
• Countries that are largely English-speaking also have sizeable numbers of people with different primary languages.
• In the U.S., more than 20% of the population uses a language other than English at home.²
• Roughly 8% of people in the U.K. say their main language is not English.³
• Only about 57% of Canadians list English as their first language. About 20% speak French primarily. The remaining 23% use other languages at home.⁴

Even if you share the same language as the people you’re talking to, captioning is now a mainstream need. Worldwide, 20% of people are Deaf or hard-of-hearing and 15–20% are neurodivergent;^5,6 captions can help them access and process information. Among hearing and neurotypical people, too, numerous studies support the benefits of captioning for comprehension and retention.

The benefits of providing services like interpreting, translation, and captioning come into focus when we view language access as more than transactional. Making it easy for customers, employees, and communities to communicate effectively signals to them that you value their perspectives and engagement.

When the people you work with and serve feel welcome, valued, and respected because you prioritize their access and inclusion, the impact snowballs:

• Productivity and efficiency rise when all parties can communicate quickly and effectively.
• It feeds a culture of belonging that spurs organic engagement.
• Word of mouth generates referrals and positive brand reputation.

Use cases for real-time translation and captioning

The need for captioning and translation services reaches into every sector, easing friction points on both sides of the equation when solutions put people on even footing:
Business: Companies that provide adequate service to linguistically varied and hard-of-hearing populations can tap into a double-digit boost to their customer base. For industries like financial services, retail, and hospitality that cast a wide net, expanding their reach to even half of those people makes an enormous impact.

• Customer support: Instead of hiring multilingual support staff, businesses can integrate real-time captioning and translation into their customer service to support hard-of-hearing and linguistically varied customers.

Beyond customers, supporting employees with captioning and translation expands your talent pool for recruiting and sets teams up for greater productivity.

• Multilingual meetings: It’s not far-fetched, or even unusual, nowadays for an enterprise to collaborate in multinational teams. Employees working together may speak English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Real-time translation makes it possible for companies to pair top talent across borders and cultures, ensuring everyone understands and contributes effectively.
• Training and onboarding employees: Companies with global workforces can use AI translation to provide training materials and live instruction in multiple languages, ensuring consistent knowledge transfer.

Education: In primary and secondary education settings, it’s critical to communicate effectively not only with students but also their families. For post-secondary educational institutions, the overlap of linguistically varied and hard-of-hearing students makes captioning and translation service an indispensable educational tool.

• Supporting international students: Real-time captioning in their primary language can dramatically improve international students’ ability to comprehend and engage with lectures, class discussions, and communicate with professors.
• Providing language access for parents and families: Translate and caption orientations and open houses, parent–teacher conferences, and community events and graduation ceremonies with parents and grandparents.
• Encouraging global collaboration: Open doors to international research partnerships, guest speakers, and prestigious global opportunities for faculty and students.

For a deeper dive, read our blog specifically about the benefits of multilingual captioning in education.

Healthcare: Patients and healthcare providers alike know the frustrations of trying to communicate symptoms, diagnoses, and treatment when they don’t know what each other is saying, not to mention administrative challenges. Captioning in their preferred language can help with some of those challenges, allowing patients and staff to communicate more quickly and accurately for better outcomes.

• Patient consultations and diagnoses: Translation and captioning allows doctors and nurses to communicate more effectively with patients who are hard-of-hearing and/or speak different languages, supporting accurate diagnoses and treatment.
• Communicating medical records and instructions: Hospital and clinic staff using translation and captioning are better equipped to accurately communicate about medical history, patient instructions, and follow-up.

Find more details on the impact of communication accessibility in healthcare in our blog post, Language Accessibility in Breast Cancer Awareness and Treatment.

Event planning: The success of an event rides wholly on participant experience. By providing — and promoting — real-time captioning and translation services for events, organizers can create an inviting experience starting at registration. Event planners can attract more participants by offering accessible communication solutions and follow through with conditions that allow multilingual and hard-of-hearing attendees to fully engage.

• Presentations and panel discussions: Give audiences full access to speeches and discussions by thought leaders with simultaneous translation and captions. Even participants with basic command of the speaker’s language benefit from subtitles for technical or niche subject matter.
• Q&A sessions: Give and take improves events for both attendees and presenters. With simultaneous translation and captioning, your audience can feel more comfortable actively participating and asking questions.

There’s no limit to the examples of everyday communication that can benefit from real-time translation. However, the delivery of translation services must reflect the circumstances for a satisfactory experience; knowing when to use human interpreters versus AI translation makes all the difference in effective communication.

Choosing the right multilingual solution: when to use AI speech translation vs human interpreters

For years, real-time multilingual communication required scheduling an in-person spoken language interpreter. High-speed internet made it possible to receive remote interpreting service via audio/video streaming. Further technological advancement gave rise to the newest option on the scene: AI speech translation. Each of these is a valuable tool when you know how and when to use them.

Interpreter vs translator: what’s the difference?
Real quick, let’s address this common area of confusion. The difference between an interpreter and a translator — or the difference between translation and interpreting — is that

• an interpreter converts one spoken or signed language directly to another spoken or signed language.
• a translator works with written language, converting one written language to another or going from a spoken/signed language to written language (or vice versa).

You might use a human translator for document translation. When you want real-time language support for a conversation, you probably want an interpreter…or the new option, AI speech translation.

When to use an interpreter

Professional interpreters are an irreplaceable communication resource, able to bridge language and culture so people of different backgrounds can connect and understand each other. Sorenson is a global leader in sign language interpreting with more than 20 years of experience providing these services, so we will always advocate the benefits of using qualified interpreters.

Highly skilled interpreters come with an appropriate price tag. When you hire an interpreter, you’re paying for bilingual (or even multilingual) fluency, cultural competence, extensive training, and professional conduct — confidentiality, ethics standards, and reliability.

Some communication warrants, even demands, the cost of interpreting service:

• High stakes communication, including sensitive legal and medical situations
• Technical or jargon-heavy discussions where details are critical
• Emotional interactions
• Performances with verbal elements

The unique ability of professional interpreters to convey nuance — in the form of tone, context, emotion, body language, etc. — and their complex understanding of language gives their service a level of accuracy beyond word-for-word translation that technology cannot imitate.

That human element is most potent in person, and thus the tendency to prioritize onsite interpreting for important conversations: doctor appointments and legal proceedings, for example.

However, remote interpreting — via internet or phone connection — can provide a similar level of nuance with the flexibility and lower cost of virtual access. For example, Sorenson’s scheduled and on-demand sign language Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) services work for face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid conversations and require less planning ahead than onsite interpreting services.

When to use AI speech translation

AI speech translation services, like Sorenson Forum, elevate convenience and affordability to make multilingual communication accessibility an everyday solution rather than an occasional one.

How well can AI translate languages? Well, language processing is one of the areas where AI’s speed and consistency shine.

• AI can learn an entire language in a day, compared to the years it takes humans to become fluent.
• A single AI speech translation product can instantaneously translate dozens of languages, reducing costs and streamlining logistics.
• An AI language translator doesn’t sleep, expect weekends off, or observe holidays; it’s available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with no need to schedule service.

Sorenson Forum is an AI translation service that is making multilingual accessibility affordable and scalable. It uses the most advanced speech recognition software and AI language models to convert speech to text and translate languages in real time, displaying captions in dozens of languages — even simultaneously. With AI text-to-speech functionality, users can listen to the translation as well as read the captions. Bonus: the transcript is available for distribution afterward in every language users used during the session.

The benefits of AI translation services make it possible for businesses and organizations to connect with people regardless of their language at a fraction of the cost of using human interpreters. That makes it practical and affordable to be accessible not only for critical communications, but the everyday interactions that build community and affinity. However, the technology isn’t an ideal fit for every situation.

AI language translators lack the human touch: the ability to convey nuance like tone, inflection, emphasis, emotion, body language — the elements of communication that add context to what we say. That requires a qualified interpreter.

Still, there are many applications for real-time AI speech translation that lean into the technology’s strengths to amplify engagement and inclusion at a fraction of the cost of interpreting services:

• Conferences and events
• Meetings
• Classes, training, and information sessions

An AI language translator will provide the best user experience when the value is in what you’re saying rather than how you’re saying it.

Interpreting vs AI translation use case comparison

Now that we’ve reviewed the strengths and ideal uses of professional interpreters and AI speech translation, let’s look at examples of how and when each might be useful across different settings.

Business 

Invest in interpreting for:

• formal presentations to key decision-makers
• negotiating terms of contracts and agreements
• communication with Deaf clients or colleagues who use sign language

Leverage AI speech translation for:

• team meetings and planning sessions
• routine customer service
• public announcements

Education

Invest in interpreting for:

• serious disciplinary discussions
• Individual Education Program (IEP) conferences
• communication with Deaf students or parents who use sign language

Leverage AI speech translation for:

• classes and lectures, including transcripts
• assemblies and community events
• routine parent–teacher conferences

Healthcare 

Invest in interpreting for:

• patient exams and consultations
• discussing diagnoses and treatment
• communication with Deaf patients who use sign language

Leverage AI speech translation for:

• administrative communication
• educating patients or the public about preventative health measures

Event planning 

Invest in interpreting for:

• emotional presentations or performances
• communication with Deaf participants who use sign language

Leverage AI speech translation for:

• opening/closing remarks and orientation
• informational presentations and panel discussions
• Q&A sessions

Why to use interpreters with Deaf people who use sign language 

We always recommend offering sign language interpreting to communicate with Deaf individuals who are native sign language users. While some deaf people can get by with captioning — and some deaf people do not use sign language at all and may prefer captioning — for native sign language users, those captions are in a second language rather than their preferred one.

American Sign Language (ASL), for example, has an entirely different linguistic structure than English. Providing an equitable experience for ASL users requires offering communication in ASL, which real-time speech translation does not accommodate…yet.

Sorenson is the global leader in sign language interpreting services and can provide scheduled or on-demand ASL interpreters anywhere in the U.S.

See ASL interpreting options

Now that you know how to use AI for language access, are you ready to try it?

If you’ve made it this far, chances are you see the potential to leverage real-time AI speech translation to transform how you engage with your community — locally and globally — without breaking the bank or adding logistical challenges. And that’s the idea: language accessibility that’s seamless and affordable.

Sources

1. Exclusion of the non-English-speaking world from the scientific literature: Recommendations for change for addiction journals and publishers
2. 2023 American Community Survey
3. Language in England and Wales
4. Statistics on official languages in Canada
5. World Report on Hearing
6. Embracing Neurodiversity at Work: Unleashing America’s Largest Untapped Talent Pool

In New York City’s Lower East Side, a historic institution is redefining how it connects with visitors from every background. The NYC Tenement Museum, known for its historic depictions of immigrant life, uses language accessibility to ensure every visitor can fully experience its tours and exhibits.

How is it doing this? Through Sorenson Forum, an AI-powered language platform that delivers real-time translation and captioning. The museum uses these tools to expand access, foster engagement and set new standards for inclusivity in cultural spaces. With multilingual tours, captions and a commitment to accessibility, the Tenement Museum is building a more connected, inclusive world.

A museum with a unique perspective

The Tenement Museum offers an intimate window into the lives of immigrants, migrants, and refugees who shaped New York City. Its guided tours bring to life the stories of working-class residents who lived between the 1860s and 1980s, inside restored tenement apartments and throughout the Lower East Side neighborhood where they built new beginnings.

Founded in 1988 by historian Ruth Abram and social activist Anita Jacobson, the museum began with a remarkable discovery: an abandoned tenement at 97 Orchard St., untouched for more than 50 years. Inside were the belongings of families who once lived there — hairpins, toys, business cards and more — each telling a personal story of resilience and hope.

While textbooks often overlook the lives of ordinary people, the Tenement Museum celebrates them. Its commitment to inclusion ensures that everyone, regardless of language, can connect with these stories. From multilingual staff to translated materials, every effort reflects its mission to honor diverse cultural identities and make visitors feel welcome.

To further this mission, the museum adopted Sorenson Forum, an AI-powered accessibility tool that provides real-time captions in 25 languages and 43 dialects.  The museum’s Visitor Services Manager, shared why the museum wanted to use the technology:

“We wanted to provide translation services for our non-English-speaking visitors who otherwise can’t understand the content and history of the museum. We have some of our primary sources translated in other languages, but the tours are led in English, so the challenge was getting a translation for the entire program.”

By offering instant captions and translations, the museum helps visitors of all language backgrounds engage more deeply with its exhibits and guided tours. This inclusive approach extends to educational programs that explore how immigrants shaped the city’s identity, leaving guests inspired and informed.
The partnership’s success has even inspired the museum to explore Sorenson’s on-demand ASL interpreting service, expanding accessibility for Deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors. Together, these services help the museum reach a broader, global audience and ensure no story is left unheard.

The future of language access

The Tenement Museum shows how technology can transform cultural institutions. With real-time language services, it creates immersive experiences that explore identity, policy and community through the eyes of the people who lived them.
By continually expanding its language offerings and embracing innovation, the museum sets an example for others to follow — proving that technology can connect people and open doors to understanding.

Discover what’s possible

Want to make your institution more inclusive?

Connect with our team for a personalized accessibility consultation. Discover how advanced language solutions like Sorenson Forum can help you break down barriers and create a more connected future.

As businesses evolve in a digital landscape, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) has taken center stage in any well-formed enterprise strategy. ESG has become a standard measuring stick for evaluating potential investments and partnerships. Although typically the focus of traditional industries (manufacturing, transportation), ESG has become central due to the digital realm’s unique challenges—including accessibility.

Creating an accessible environment can not only improve a company’s ESG score, but also qualify them for tax incentives and provide additional financial and brand benefits that we’re going to explain:

• Economic benefits and tax incentives for accessibility
• ESG and Accessibility
• Accessibility best practices
• Overcoming challenges

Is accessibility part of ESG?

Accessibility falls under the Social aspect of ESG, which focuses on a company's practices related to inclusion and accessibility.

Accessibility and inclusion in business means everyone can use services and products regardless of ability. You might ask yourself, “What is accessibility for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing?” It could be sign language interpreters, captioning services, visual alerts, and text-based communications.

By embracing accessibility, businesses demonstrate a commitment to social responsibility and equity, enhancing their overall ESG profile.

ESG and accessibility

ESG initiatives marry company goals with purpose, emphasizing the importance of environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and ethical practices. The Social aspect of ESG benefits society, including Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, by examining the impact of business actions on consumers, employees, and the wider public. Implementing accessibility is a major part of demonstrating a commitment to social responsibility by eradicating barriers for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Economic benefits of accessibility

Committing to a diverse and inclusive customer experience that includes people with disabilities has several economic benefits:

1. An expanded market: People with disabilities have considerable purchasing power, with disposable income approaching half a trillion dollars. By making products and services accessible, businesses expand their customer base and drive revenue growth.
2. Innovation and product development: Implementing accessibility fosters innovation and creativity. Companies leading the way in accessible design create user-friendly experiences that resonate with diverse audiences.
3. Competitive edge and brand loyalty: Customers are demonstrating more loyalty to socially inclusive businesses that make online and in-person experiences user-friendly for everyone.
4. Risk mitigation: Prioritizing accessibility helps to avoid potential legal issues, protects reputations, and prevents financial problems, ensuring that businesses thrive in the long run.

Furthermore, businesses that prioritize accessibility are eligible to receive considerable tax benefits. These tax benefits are offset costs of businesses adjusting physical spaces and installing telecommunication solutions to be more inclusive of Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals and other people with disabilities.

An Accenture study showed that businesses that hired people with disabilities saw increased revenue and profit. Behind the profits, the public can see an enterprise’s implementation of accessibility as a demonstration of its values and a desire to reach a diverse customer base and talent.

Tax incentives for an accessible business

Tax incentives and benefits are designed to encourage more companies to remove barriers and create a more equitable society.

The IRS provides three tax credits for businesses that are deemed accessible. These tax credits are:

1. Disabled Access Credit: To be eligible for this credit, you need to be a small business that earned $1 million or less and had 30 or fewer full-time employees. You need to have incurred expenses that year for providing equal access to people with disabilities.
2. Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction: A business of any size that has removed structural and transportation barriers for seniors and people with physical disabilities can claim this deduction of up to $15,000 per year for qualified expenses. If applicable, a business can claim both the Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction and Disabled Access Credit.
3. Work Opportunity Tax Credit: Employers who hire people with disabilities and veterans are eligible for a credit of up to $9,600.

For more information and tax forms, visit the IRS guide.

Starbucks is a prime example of a corporation combining profit with social good. The company boosted its brand image by opening the first ASL store in Washington, D.C. and demonstrated a commitment to reaching the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.

A case study: NPR

National Public Radio (NPR) hosts This American Life, a weekly podcast. In 2011, NPR began providing transcripts for weekly podcast episodes in response to new FCC regulations. While NPR initially aimed to adhere to legal requirements, the case study showed that transcripts increased traffic and listeners to their podcast.

 Not only do transcripts benefit Deaf and hard-of-hearing people, but they also help ESL learners and people who prefer reading over listening.

Aligning accessibility with ESG initiatives can empower an enterprise to present as a positive influence in society that fosters continued innovation and inclusion.

Accessibility best practices

Implementing best practices for accessibility can boost customer satisfaction, extend market reach, and promote a positive company culture.

Here are some best practices to implement for an accessible business:

Include accessibility from the beginning:

Consider diverse perspectives in the planning stage for products, services, and your environment — a vital element of universal design. If you engage people with disabilities — including the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities — through surveys, focus groups, and consultation with advocacy groups early on, you’ll be a step ahead of accessibility.

Leverage accessible communication technology:

• Equip workrooms and meeting spaces with assistive listening devices (hearing loops). Include VRI interpreting services.
• Provide real-time captioning for presentations and virtual meetings.
• Ensure your website is accessible for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing by providing transcripts for audio content and closed captioning for videos. Use plain language for textual content and avoid jargon.

Make your physical environment accessible:

Install both audio and visual alert systems for alarms and doorbells to provide accessibility for hard-of-hearing and low-vision individuals.

Encourage an inclusive work culture:

Integrate disability into workplace training on accessibility and set expectations for respect. This training can also include guidance for effective collaboration with colleagues of different abilities and how to best use accessibility tools.

Be transparent:

Communicate your accessibility initiatives to your customers and the public. This will not only boost your brand image and reputation but also make accessibility more familiar to others.  By actively removing barriers for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, a business can improve the experience for customers and employees. Achieving accessibility is a continual process that involves learning and adapting to create the ideal user experience.

A thorough accessibility plan spans every aspect of your business, both internally and externally. For example, let’s look at how accessible practices might play out in different departments.

Human resources

Creating an accessible and inclusive workplace for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals is not only a compliance matter but it is a crucial aspect of building a robust workforce. Here is how Human Resources can help create a stronger workforce:

1. Recruitment and onboarding

• Use plain language in job postings and encourage diverse applicants. Make it clear that you support accessibility in your company.
• Ensure the application and interview processes are accessible by providing captioning services and sign language interpreters. Offer the same for the onboarding process.

2. Workplace accommodations

• Review employees’ specific needs and provide flexible solutions, including workplace adjustments, software, and communication technology.
• Make assistive technology available for equitable communication:
• For phone calls: Deaf and hard-of-hearing employees may use video relay services (VRS) or call captioning service, both of which are part of a federally funded program at no cost to eligible individuals or their employers.
• For scheduled meetings, interviews, training, and seminars: on-site ASL interpreting or video remote interpreting (VRI) allow effective communication, while live captioning and transcription boosts comprehension and retention for all participants.
• For impromptu meetings and spontaneous conversations, on-demand VRI and speech-to-text apps support daily communication with colleagues.

3. A culture of belonging

• Create equitable hiring practices by seeking potential Deaf and hard-of-hearing hires for all roles within a business, including leadership roles.
• Support Deaf and hard-of-hearing staff by providing peer support and advice on accessibility.

Marketing and outreach

Your marketing and outreach strategies can be optimized to ensure full accessibility for Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Here’s how you can adapt your strategy to be more inclusive:

1. Accessible media

• Caption all video and audio content and provide transcripts for long-form content, like podcasts.
• Include sign language interpreting for marketing campaigns and major company announcements.

2. Accessible website design

• Ensure your website complies with WCAG guidelines, which aim to facilitate navigation and comprehension for all users.
• Incorporate accessibility into the design process. Test with diverse users, including Deaf and hard-of-hearing volunteers, to find and fix any barriers.

3. Community engagement

• Solicit feedback and testimonials from diverse communities, which will help you refine your marketing strategies.
• Ensure your events are accessible by providing sign language interpreters, hearing loops, and captioning services.
• Support events and projects of interest to disability communities to reinforce your commitment to accessibility and inclusion.

Overcoming accessibility challenges

Implementing accessibility measures can present a set of challenges for any business. The following are some common challenges and accompanying solutions:

1. Budget concerns

• Take advantage of the tax incentives above if you have eligible expenses.
• Employ a variety of solutions to choose the most cost-effective option for specific needs. For example, video remote interpreting (VRI) may be a better choice for an informal half-hour meeting than on-site interpreting that has a two-hour minimum and potential interpreter travel expenses.
• Consider making changes in phases.

2. Technological barriers

• Invest in assistive technologies and provide platforms to make them accessible to all users.

3. Resistance to change

• Adopting a culture of inclusion can take some getting used to, so provide education about its role in company goals and the long-term benefits.
• Assemble support from leadership to model inclusive behavior.

Conclusion

Creating an accessible environment for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing is a smart business decision: It puts you in compliance with legal regulations, contributes to a strong ESG profile, provides long-term financial benefits, and makes you eligible for tax incentives to offset up-front costs.

Implementing accessibility within the ESG framework positively impacts reputation, brand image, employee satisfaction, and customer loyalty. Such impacts extend beyond business and can effect societal changes.

It’s important to remember that accessibility isn’t a one-and-done process but a continual one that lays a path for growing, learning, and adapting.

Sorenson offers accessibility design consultants who can help you develop a tailored plan for your business that matches your specific needs to appropriate solutions. When you inquire about services, we pair you with a consultant who fits your industry’s needs.

Request a consultation

Technology has transformed communication —  from the uptake of telegraphs in the 19th century to the ability of today’s machine learning software to instantly produce speech-to-text captioning in dozens of languages — and in many ways has brought people together across languages. At Sorenson, we’d argue that technology is a tool for interlingual communication, but it cannot yet match skilled interpreters for linguistic and expressive nuance.

Sign language interpreters are in high demand, and that’s great because:

1. It’s a sign of greater communication accessibility between deaf and hearing people
2. It means more job opportunities for sign language interpreters

Every certified sign language interpreter is part of a relatively small force trying to make a dent in an enormous need:

• In the U.S., there are just over 10-thousand certified ASL interpreters¹ compared to roughly one million Deaf and hard-of-hearing adults who use sign language.²
• While approximately 87-thousand Deaf people in the UK use sign language,³ the country has only 1,500 registered sign language interpreters.⁴
• The Canadian Association of Sign Language Interpreters has about 830 members,⁵ to support 357-thousand Deaf Canadians.⁶

If you’re exploring your options in a career as a sign language interpreter or looking for interpreting jobs, you can be choosy about where you take your skills. Here are some considerations to guide the next steps in your sign language interpreting career.

Key factors to consider in choosing the next steps in your sign language interpreting career

When planning any career move, some factors are obvious — like compensation and schedule — but those essential considerations are a fraction of the impact on your career and job satisfaction.

• Professional development
• Freelance versus employee
• Benefits and compensation
• Variety of opportunities

For interpreters in particular, professional development and continuing education are essential to keeping your skills sharp and opening doors to additional opportunities, whether you want to compare VRS and community interpreting or gain skills and knowledge in specialty areas like medical, legal, or educational settings.

Professional development

In the interpreting world, “knowledge is power” applies to both what you know (continuing education) and whom you know (networking). When plotting a course in your career, think about what kind of access each of your options will provide to training and connections for professional growth.

Continuing education 

The most seasoned and skilled sign language interpreters never stop learning — about techniques, dialects, and evolution of the living languages they work with. It is a professional necessity for interpreters to further their education long beyond completion of their initial interpreter education courses by way of advanced degrees, continuing education courses, and training.

How you approach ongoing professional learning roughly breaks down into two options:

1. You can independently pursue degree programs or enroll in interpreter CEU courses like those available through Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) or a number of companies specializing in language services and education. You’ll find a wide variety of interpreting CEUs (continuing education units), many of which you can complete fully online. You’ll be responsible for the registration costs.
2. If you’re an employee/staff interpreter, your company or organization may offer its own educational or training opportunities, contract with a third party to provide training, or cover the costs for interpreters to enroll in external continuing education courses.

Interpreter education and training opportunities are arguably Sorenson’s biggest impact in the global languages services realm because not only does the company offer complimentary professional development for its thousands of interpreting employees, its interpreter programs also train interpreters who aren’t Sorenson staff.

Sorenson Interpreting Academy provided more than 40-thousand hours of instruction in 2023 alone with 16-thousand participant registrations in its programs for every level from students through experienced professionals.

The mission of these programs is to enhance the skills of Sorenson’s own exceptional interpreters, of course, but also to enrich the sign language interpreting community as a whole through quality professional development opportunities:

• Deaf Interpreter Academy is a no-cost program offering professional-level trainings for new and working Deaf interpreters in the industry and provide skill development opportunities to all interpreters in Deaf-hearing interpreter teaming techniques.
• Compass is also a no-cost program that builds on the linguistic and cultural foundations of heritage language users to fast-track their sign language interpreting education.
• Interpreters with strong potential who don’t yet meet Sorenson’s rigorous standards for employment enroll by the hundreds every year in the company’s Connections program to take their skills to the next level, and 98% say they would recommend the program to others.

The dozens of interpreter educators who comprise the Sorenson Interpreting Academy team include veteran sign language interpreters — many of whom are Deaf interpreters and Codas — sharing  expertise in language development, instructional design and content, as well as mentoring. 

Mentorship and networking 

Meeting and working with fellow interpreters is a chance to borrow skills, build confidence, and open doors to career advancement; sign language interpreting is a small world, after all.

1. Working with more experienced interpreters can develop mentor relationships that allow you to benefit from years of practice and skill-building as well as constructive feedback.
2. Meeting and mentoring younger interpreters can be fulfilling, and don’t overlook the potential to learn from them as well. As sign languages evolve, fresh interpreters may be current on the latest slang.
3. Professional organizations and conferences are a networking goldmine. You may want to weigh how different employment scenarios would impact your ability to participate.

The size of your interpreting team plays a significant role in your mentoring and networking opportunities, whether you’re interpreting for a large language services provider, a small staff, or flying solo as a freelancer.

For example, Sorenson is the largest private employer of sign language interpreters in the world with a team of more than 5,000 interpreters globally. One of the benefits of being part of an interpreter workforce of that size is the potential to learn from peers with an astounding variety of expertise:

• Deaf interpreters
• Trilingual interpreters
• Interpreters with specialized training for DeafBlind and low vision interpreting, medical, legal, and government settings
• Every interpreting setting in the industry: VRS, on-site, scheduled and on-demand VRI

Your level of exposure to other interpreters — as mentors, mentees, and professional connections — may influence your decision to pursue interpreting work as an employee or freelance.

Freelance vs. employee

Are you going to be better off going solo as a freelance interpreter or finding a position with a company that offers sign language interpreting? There’s not a right or wrong answer; it comes down to what factors are most important to you. As with any industry, freelance vs. staff interpreting come with pros and cons, many of them relating to flexibility and support.

Freelance interpreting 

Pros: As a freelance sign language interpreter, you have the maximum level of control and flexibility; you can choose your hours and what kind of interpreting work you book. That flexibility allows you to customize your work schedule. You may also be able to negotiate your rates to reflect your experience, specialization, or other market factors.

Cons: The flip side of freelance interpreting can be additional responsibility and instability. You’re responsible not only  for securing interpreting work, but arranging your own insurance, training and certifications and licensure as required, and handling the administrative side of the business — invoicing, bookkeeping, and taxes.

There are a couple basic options to find freelance interpreting work: 

• Independently, through self-marketing and networking: If you’re well-connected and establish relationships with organizations or individuals that regularly require interpreting, this approach may run smoothly. Without those relationships, marketing yourself can require a lot of leg work.
• Work with a language services provider: The company fields interpreting requests and connects them with a pool of freelance interpreters. This setup removes the burden of marketing yourself, but opportunities may be inconsistent.

Staff interpreting

Pros: A major benefit of an employee interpreting position is the stability of consistent work and pay. As a staff interpreter, you may also have company-provided benefits like health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off (though this is not guaranteed, particularly for part-time interpreting positions). Some employers who maintain interpreting staff will also offer professional development opportunities.

Cons: Some staff interpreting positions do offer more flexibility than a standard corporate environment, but do not always offer as much as freelancing. Being an employee means answering to management and operating within the confines of company expectations. Also, as an employee, your ability to negotiate your rates is likely limited to your hiring and potentially annual reviews.

Your experience as an employee will vary by your setting — whether you’re a staff interpreter for a private enterprise, a government agency or educational institution, or are an employee interpreter with a language services provider. While many language service providers operate exclusively with freelancers, there are few exceptions like Sorenson, which maintains a dedicated staff of thousands of interpreter employees.

Benefits and compensation

Interpreting is one of those coveted careers where you can make a real difference in people’s day and make the world a little better. That said, warm, fuzzy feelings don’t pay the bills. You can prioritize making an impact on your community and also care about your compensation.

To get a baseline for competitive pay, you can use online databases to look up the average sign language interpreter income nationally and in your area. For example, if you look up estimates of national average sign language interpreting salaries, you may find numbers like these:

• Average ASL interpreter salary in the U.S. around $64,000/year (from ZipRecruiter.com)
• Average BSL interpreter salary in the U.K. around £35,000 (from Talent.com)
• Average sign language interpreter salary in Canada around $70,000 (from Talent.com)

Bear in mind, what you can expect for a sign language interpreter salary will vary considerably by experience, certifications, location, and specialization. There can also be significant differences in interpreter income between employee positions versus freelance work, and that’s partly due to additional factors like benefits and taxes.

When weighing compensation for different career options, you may want to think about what you’re likely to get in a week, in a year, and in the long run. This is particularly important when considering freelance vs. employee interpreting paths.

• Negotiating rates: As we discussed above, freelance interpreting offers the most opportunity to negotiate your rates, which can significantly impact your earning potential, especially if you have in-demand specialization or experience (or if you’re in an area where the need for interpreting services exceeds availability).
  However, if you don’t have the credentials yet to command top tier rates, if the demand for interpreting doesn’t give you leverage in negotiations, or if you’re not consistently booking work independently you may want to compare the average rate for freelance interpreting to the total compensation you could earn in a staff position.
• Health insurance: Health insurance can be expensive. If you’re responsible for your own insurance, you’ll want to price policies to factor that into your income calculations. Likewise, health insurance benefits can add thousands of dollars a year to the value of a compensation package from an employer.
• Retirement savings: Retirement is where long-term compensation considerations really come into play. Much like insurance, if you opt to work freelance as an interpreter, you’ll need to look into independently setting up and contributing to a retirement savings account and planning for that money to come out of your earnings.
  If you choose an employee interpreting position, retirement benefits do increase the value of your compensation package, but the amount may vary greatly; compare employers’ retirement contributions and/or matching as part of your evaluation of offers.

Review Sorenson employee benefits

Variety of interpreting opportunities

If you could only do one type of sign language interpreting for the rest of your career, what would it be? VRS, community interpreting, scheduled VRI, on-demand VRI? Would it be a specialized service like legal interpreting or DeafBlind interpreting? Can’t choose just one, or haven’t tried them all to know for sure? 

When plotting where to steer your career, factor in how important it is to you to have a variety of interpreting opportunities.

Video Remote Interpreting (VRI):

VRI has skyrocketed in popularity as an enterprise service. For interpreters, scheduled VRI combines the remote video interpreting aspect of VRS with the slower pace and greater potential for prep of community interpreting. The relatively recent introduction of on-demand VRI skews toward a quicker pace for short conversations in an enterprise environment.

Video Relay Service (VRS):

It’s tough, it’s rewarding, and it generates the biggest demand for sign language interpreters. VRS is fast-paced and unpredictable, allowing interpreters to connect sometimes dozens of conversations in a workday.

On-site/community interpreting:

On-site (or community) interpreting is often the option clients name as their favorite for the greater visibility, mobility, and elimination of technical difficulties. Those are equally beneficial for interpreters, though on-site work does require travel, which can include dealing with traffic, parking, and checking in at the location.

Specialized interpreting:

The term “specialized interpreting” casts a wide net and can refer to interpreting needs that require niche skills, additional training, or techniques to fit particular situations or content — like interpreting emergency government news conferences or theater performances. Most often, specialized interpreting falls into three high-demand categories:

• Legal interpreting: Legal interpreting can encompass court proceedings, conversations between attorneys and clients, as well as law enforcement interviews and investigations. It’s another area of specialization that requires specific skills and terminology.
• Medical interpreting: Medical settings are one of the highest needs for specialized interpreters, both in person and VRI. Medical interpreting requires additional knowledge of medical terminology as well as compliance with state and institutional policies relating to safety and privacy.
• Educational interpreting: There’s steady demand for educational interpreters in primary, secondary, and higher education. With more deaf children attending mainstream schools and deaf college enrollment growing at a faster rate than that of hearing peers, the need for sign language interpreting at all levels of education has never been higher. In fact, in the U.S., the National Deaf Center points out that higher education is one of the sectors most keenly feeling the shortage of sign language interpreters as universities struggle to keep pace with the influx of deaf students.⁷

Traditionally, educational interpreting has been largely on-site, but the increase in remote learning has created a need for VRI in education as well.

Those are only a few examples. Specialized interpreting can also include different approaches to interpreting to better meet the linguistic needs of clients, like low vision interpreting or interpreter teaming with a hearing interpreter and a Deaf interpreter.

• Certified Deaf interpreters: If you’re a Deaf interpreter who’s gone through the necessary training to become certified (or plan to), you’re well-versed in interpreter teaming (or you will be). Even for interpreters with native language proficiency, teaming is a skill in itself, and it takes training and practice for Deaf and hearing interpreters to collaborate seamlessly. That’s one of the key elements of Sorenson’s Deaf Interpreter Academy, a no-cost program for Deaf interpreters to hone their skills and build a foundation for professional interpreting success.

To acquire the training required for specialized interpreting, you’ll need to enroll for continuing education programs/courses and training.

Some companies that employ interpreters will provide the necessary training for interpreters to maintain their certifications and licensure. Sorenson is unique in the size and scope of its interpreting and interpreter training teams that it offers wide range of professional development for its staff at no cost to boost the pool of qualified interpreters for any need. Interpreters may even get reimbursement for related costs like testing fees, registration for professional conferences, and interpreting organization membership.

Design your own sign language interpreter career

The biggest takeaway from this guide is that you have options as a professional sign language interpreter. Demand is high for your skill set, and a global shortage of interpreters means you have the power to be selective about your career moves.

There’s not a one-size-fits-all path to suit every interpreter. Weigh your priorities and preferences from the factors we’ve laid out here, talk to mentors and peers about their experiences, and research your options.

Sorenson is always hiring sign language interpreters to support connection and language equity on a global scale. We encourage you to browse our interpreting opportunities and interpreter training opportunities to advance your career.

Browse Sorenson sign language interpreter positions

Sources

1. Dive into your exclusive access to RID publications and materials.
2. How many people use Sign Language? A national health survey-based estimate
3. Prevalence of British Sign Language
4. Facts and statements on inclusion
5. Casli directory of members
6. Statistics on deaf Canadians
7. The ASL interpreter shortage and its impact on accessibility in college settings