Following on from the INforMHAA study (https://signs.hw.ac.uk/projects/informhaa/), this research network is focussed on the estimated 400,000 Deaf users of South African Sign Language (SASL) who regularly interact with health and social work services via SASL interpreters. These high stakes situations are fundamentally dependent on effective communication yet effective support and guidance for health/social work professionals and SASL interpreters is not available. The situation is highly complex given the vast language diversity of SA with most interpreters being multilinguals for whom neither the dominant spoken language nor the signed language are likely to be first languages. This project will map the field in real life, not theory. It brings together practitioners, Deaf people, interpreter trainers and academics to produce policy relevant evidence briefings and research papers that form the foundation for a later large-scale project as well as deliver immediate resources to enhance professional practice. Through improving the working practices of practice professionals in the most seriously consequential interpreter mediated situations we are laying the foundations for improving practice across all health and social care access, reducing inequities of process and outcome for Deaf citizens and building the skills of the nascent SASL interpreting profession to the benefit of the quality of life all Deaf people in SA.

Project partners: University of Manchester, Open University, University of Essex