Flood, cyclone and earthquake disasters in Australia and New Zealand in 2011 brought sign language interpreters into the media spotlight in these countries. Their inclusion in television broadcasts to communicate emergency-related information was unprecedented in both countries, and attracted strong responses from Deaf viewers and the general public. Drawing on retrospective interviews with two New Zealand interpreters and one Australian interpreter, this report explains how interpreters came to be included in the broadcasts, and identifies the specific demands they encountered when working in the context of a civil emergency. Impacts of, and responses to, the interpreted coverage are also noted.
Black, J. & McLean, J. (2011). For better or for worse: How initial support provision adapted to needs. The New Zealand Journal of Psychology 40 (4), 111–120.
Dean, R. & Pollard, R. Q. (2001). The application of demand-control theory to sign language interpreting: Implications for stress and interpreter training. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 6 (1), 1–14.
Dean, R. & Pollard, R. Q. (2011). Context-based ethical reasoning in interpreting: A demand control schema perspective. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 5 (1), 155–182..
Fawcett, J. (2011). Organisational and cultural factors that promote coping: With reference to Haiti and Christchurch. The New Zealand Journal of Psychology 40 (4), 64–69.
Hawker, D. M., Durkin, J. & Hawker, D. S. J. (2010). To debrief or not to debrief our heroes: That is the question. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy 181, 453–463.
McLean, I., Oughton, D., Ellis, S., Wakelin, B. & Rubin, C. (2012). The review of the civil defence emergency management response to the 22 February Christchurch earthquake. [URL] (accessed 1April 2013).
Napier. J. (2002). Sign language interpreting: Linguistic coping strategies. Coleford, UK: Douglas McLean.
Sawrey, R., Waldegrave, C.Tamasese, T. & Bush, A. (2011) After the earthquakes: Immediate post-disaster work with children and families. The New Zealand Journal of Psychology 40 (4), 58–63.
Wood, V. T. & Weisman, R. A. (2003). A hole in the weather warning system: Improving access to hazardous weather information for Deaf and hard of hearing people. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 84 (2), 187–194.
Cited by (22)
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Cooper, Audrey C., Michele L. Cooke, Kota Takayama, Danielle F. Sumy & Sara McBride
2024. From alert to action: earthquake early warning and deaf communities. Natural Hazards
De Meulder, Maartje & Nienke Sijm
2024. “I feel a bit more of a conduit now”: Sign language interpreters coping and adapting during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Interpreting and Society 4:1 ► pp. 3 ff.
Jo, Charmhun
2024. Crisis interpreting and Deaf community understanding during the COVID‐19 pandemic: results from a South Korea‐based survey. Disasters
Malmin, Natasha P. & David Eisenman
2024. Disability Prevalence and Community-Level Allocation of Hurricane Harvey Federal Disaster Recovery Assistance in Texas. Journal of Disability Policy Studies 35:1 ► pp. 33 ff.
He, Min, Shuangping Li & Yuqing Geng
2023. Teachers’ Experiences of Keeping Special Education Students Informed of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study. Education Research International 2023 ► pp. 1 ff.
Mathews, Elizabeth, Patrick Cadwell, Shaun O’Boyle & Senan Dunne
2023. Crisis interpreting and Deaf community access in the COVID-19 pandemic. Perspectives 31:3 ► pp. 431 ff.
McKee, Rachel & Mireille Vale
2023. Recent lexical expansion in New Zealand Sign Language: context, scope and mechanisms. Current Issues in Language Planning► pp. 1 ff.
Uekusa, Shinya & Sunhee Lee
2023. Exploring the role of language ideology in disaster contexts: case study of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2023:284 ► pp. 37 ff.
Fauziyah, Siti & Lina Miftahul Jannah
2022. Access to Disclosure of Disasters Information for Deaf People through Sign Language Interpreter. IJDS Indonesian Journal of Disability Studies 9:01 ► pp. 137 ff.
Lee, Wansoo & Myungil Choi
2022. Comparison of the Disaster Accidents Agendas by Public and Commercial Broadcasting : Using Sewol Ferry News’s Keywords and Network Analysis on KBS and Channel A. Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies 66:6 ► pp. 426 ff.
2022. COVID-era sociolinguistics: introduction to the special issue. Linguistics Vanguard 8:s3 ► pp. 303 ff.
Uekusa, Shinya & Steve Matthewman
2022. Disaster Linguicism as Deprivation of the Victims' Linguistic Human Rights. In The Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights, ► pp. 639 ff.
Uekusa, Shinya & Steve Matthewman
2023. Preparing multilingual disaster communication for the crises of tomorrow: A conceptual discussion. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 87 ► pp. 103589 ff.
Calgaro, Emma, Nick Craig, Leyla Craig, Dale Dominey-Howes & Julia Allen
2021. Silent no more: Identifying and breaking through the barriers that d/Deaf people face in responding to hazards and disasters. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 57 ► pp. 102156 ff.
Cooper, Audrey C., Hương Thanh Thị Bùi, Linh Tuấn Nguyễn, Phục Khắc Nguyễn, Thanh Hà Thị Nguyễn & Diễm Phương Nữ Phan
2021. Deaf-led organizations and disaster communication in Việt Nam: Interdisciplinary insights for disability inclusive disaster risk reduction planning. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 65 ► pp. 102559 ff.
DOĞAN, Caner
2021. Televizyon Haber Bültenlerindeki İşaret Dili Çeviri Hizmetine Yönelik Sağır Topluluğun Tutum Ve Beklentileri. Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi 2021:30 ► pp. 18 ff.
Stankevič, Natalija & Dalia Mankauskienė
2021. Interpreting of Live Press Conferences into Lithuanian Sign Language Under Extreme Conditions of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Vertimo studijos 14 ► pp. 103 ff.
Leeson, Lorraine
2019. Ophelia, Emma, and the beast from the east effortful engaging and the provision of sign language interpreting in emergencies. Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal 29:2 ► pp. 187 ff.
Uekusa, Shinya
2019. Disaster linguicism: Linguistic minorities in disasters. Language in Society 48:3 ► pp. 353 ff.
Uekusa, Shinya
2022. Overcoming disaster linguicism: using autoethnography during the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark to explore how community translators can provide multilingual disaster communication. Journal of Applied Communication Research 50:6 ► pp. 673 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.