MOBILE INTERPRETING WORLDWIDE

As far as is known, mobile sign language interpreting is only available in Sweden and Japan outside of Diak’s pilot project.

The “Tolken i fickan” (Pocket Interpreter) project, financed by Sweden’s postal and telecommunications administration, began in 2005 in co-operation with the Örebro Interpreter Centre. The main aim of the project was to ensure the quality of sign language interpretation occurring via computers and 3G video phones.

The project has focussed on developing technology and techniques that enable the Swedish interpreter centre’s video call system to also receive 3G calls. Approximately one hundred people took part in the test group for the development project.

The results from the project, which ran until August 2006, are encouraging, as the service has established a permanent practice in Sweden. Deaf people have used interpreting creatively in varying situations, such as at auctions. At the end of 2006 the service had around 200 registered users in the whole country, but the number of people wanting to use the service was much greater. The number of potential users is estimated to be as much as 6,000.

3G video calls have been used in Japan since 2002. There are an estimated 360–380,000 hearing-impaired citizens,, and the figure includes the Deaf, hearing-impaired and hard of hearing. Almost every deaf person in Japan uses 3G video phones. Since 2002, the Communication Support Centre for the Deaf (CSCD) has been providing mobile interpreting for the country’s deaf citizens. The service has been popular in spite of its high prices.