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Non-professional Interpreting and Translation: State of the art and future of an emerging field of research
Edited by Rachele Antonini, Letizia Cirillo, Linda Rossato and Ira Torresi
[Benjamins Translation Library 129] 2017
► pp. 213–229

Chapter 11
Beyond the professional scope?

Sign language translation as a new challenge in the field

Traditionally, research on interlingual occurrences of sign language has focused on sign language interpreting. However, social practice has changed, not least as a result of the development in communication technologies and the increasing accessibility of audiovisual media. In this context, sign language translation, i.e. the production of recorded signed texts based on written source texts, has witnessed a steady increase, particularly in translations of websites, tests, literature, etc. This paper begins with a short description of the development of sign language translation, leading to a presentation of some typological questions related to sign language translation with a focus on some of the problems that arise when activities span the supposed boundary between translation and interpreting. The second part of the paper is a presentation of a case study demonstrating the textual and social challenges faced by a team of untrained and inexperienced sign language translators in the course of their first translation assignment. The project in question was the translation of the Austrian Jewish Museum’s website into Austrian Sign Language.

Keywords: sign language translation, website translation, self-perception
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sign language translation
    • 2.1Development
    • 2.2Research and typology
  • 3.Challenges
    • 3.1Case study and method
    • 3.2Textual challenges: What should the text look like?
    • 3.3Social challenges: Who should the translator be?
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.129.11grb
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