1. Professional Conduct

 

Interpreters shall, by virtue of membership of their professional association strive to maintain high professional standards at all times and act in accordance with the ASLIA Code of Ethics.

 

a) Dignity and Integrity

 

i. Interpreters shall be courteous, unobtrusive, and dignified at all times.

 

ii. Interpreters shall be unobtrusive in choice of dress, maintaining respect for clients and setting at all times.

 

iii. Interpreters working in teams shall act in a collaborative and cooperative manner towards colleagues to promote effective management of the communication flow between d/Deaf and hearing clients.

 

iv. Interpreters shall consider all d/Deaf and hearing participants in the interpreted setting as clients.

 

b) Honesty and Independence

 

i. Interpreters shall not allow personal bias to prejudice or influence their work or clients.

 

ii. Interpreters shall maintain their integrity and independence at all times. Interpreters in the employ of a professional agency shall not directly or indirectly make it known to a client that they might be willing to perform interpreting services under their own auspices at a lower fee which may represent a discount of the employer agency rate.

 

iii. Interpreters shall not use personal cards, which may imply employment by any other party while employed by an I/T agency for specific tasks.

 

iv. While employed by an I/T Interpreters may present business cards representing that agency only.

 

c) Reliability

 

i. Interpreters shall be punctual and adhere to appointment times and deadlines; in unforeseen circumstances the agency and or clients must be advised promptly.

 

ii. Interpreters shall undertake all proper preparations from initial contact to completion of an assignment. This includes all assignment related details e.g., time, location, name and phone number of contact person, receipt of working documents and texts, research of topic if necessary and briefing and/ or debriefing with clients etc.

 

iii. Interpreters shall be conscientious in regard to assignments, which they have accepted e.g., cancellation of a previously accepted assignment solely because another more lucrative booking on the same day has subsequently been offered shall be considered unethical and unprofessional.

 

iv. Interpreters working in teams shall consult with colleague/ s regarding content and context specific lexicon, changeover and prompting protocols, participant profile, logistical requirements etc.

 

d) Infamous Conduct

 

i. Interpreters shall at all times act in accordance with the spirit and aims of the professional association and refrain from behaviour which their colleagues would reasonably regard as unprofessional or dishonourable e.g. breaches of confidentiality, malicious rumour or hearsay, scandalous gossip, etc.

 

ii. Interpreters shall not advertise or publicise in any manner, which could in any way denigrate the interpreting profession or the communities with which they work.

 

e) Disputes

 

i. Interpreters shall attempt to resolve any dispute with their interpreting colleagues in a cooperative, constructive and responsible manner.

 

f) Breach of Code

 

i It shall be considered a breach of this code if a member is found to be guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect as defined in a court of law or convicted of a crime punishable by law.

 

ii. Interpreters shall not advertise nor allow to be exhibited any reference to his or her accreditation status or academic qualifications unless such reference is specific and accurate.

 

iii. Interpreters shall acknowledge, where and when appropriate, the source/s of any material published by them.

 

iii. Where Interpreters are found not to comply with 1.f (iii) they shall be considered in breach of this Code.

 

2. Confidentiality

 

a) Information Sharing

 

i Interpreters shall not disclose information acquired in interpreting assignments.

 

ii. Information regarding clients, context and content of interpreting assignments always remains the 'property' of clients and is to be considered strictly confidential with the exception of knowledge of a general nature which may have been gained - during assignments in a public setting.

 

iii. Interpreters employed to educate interpreter trainees, must withhold identifying information regarding assignments e.g., clients' names, ages, location, etc.

 

iv. Where collaborative work with other professionals is required e.g., in Mental Health, Educational, Legal, Medical and Deaf/Blind settings and, with the client's permission, it may be necessary to be briefed, or brief, or participate in, relevant discussions with other interpreters and/ or members of the team, agency or institution. In such circumstances, the ethical obligation for confidentiality extends to all members of the team, agency or institution.

 

v. Interpreters shall not take personal advantage of any information acquired in the course of their work. Information gained by interpreters from consultations between clients and their legal representatives is protected under the common law rule of legal professional-privilege.

 

vi. Interpreters shall not sub-contract the work, which has been assigned to them by an I/T agency.

 

vii. Documents acquired by interpreters from assignments, always remain the property of the client/ s and shall not be shown nor released to a third party without the express permission of the client or by order of a court of law.

 

3. Competence

 

a) Qualifications and Accreditation

 

i. Interpreters shall consider their NAATI accreditation level, linguistic ability, sociocultural knowledge and experience when accepting interpreting assignments.

 

ii. Interpreters shall acknowledge that to accept an interpreting assignment is an implicit declaration of their competence and constitutes a contract.

 

iii. An Interpreter shall, without prejudice, decline work if they believe it to be beyond his or her technical knowledge of a subject, linguistic competence or, requires a language other than that for which they have been accredited.

 

4. Impartiality

 

a) Conflicts of Interest

 

i Interpreters shall candidly disclose all conflicts of interest including those presented by assignments for relatives, friends or those affecting their employers.

ii. Interpreters shall not accept, or shall withdraw from, assignments for which impartiality may be too difficult to maintain because of personal beliefs.

 

b) Objectivity

 

i Interpreters shall not allow personal bias nor favour, for any hearing or d/Deaf client to whom interpreting services are being provided, to interfere in their ability to interpret accurately.

 

ii. Interpreters shall withdraw from an assignment if they are unable to guarantee detachment from a personal bias, which may threaten objectivity.

 

iii. Interpreters shall not omit or add information during an interpreting assignment even when asked to do so by any party.

 

5. Accuracy

 

a) Message Transfer

 

i. Interpreters shall accept responsibility for the accurate transfer of message meaning between parties involved in an interpreting assignment

 

ii. Interpreters shall to the best of their ability convey the message, purpose, affect, style and register of the speaker.

 

iii. Interpreters shall to the best of their ability discern and determine and, where possible, reach agreement with clients on the preferred language service i.e., Interpretation between Auslan and English or message transfer between spoken or written English and a manual representation of English, and/ or paraphrasing in non audible spoken English, and/ or gesture and/ or drawing or writing and/ or, in the deaf/blind setting, close vision or tactile interpreting employing Auslan or fingerspelling. A combination of some or all of the above may be necessary for individual clients.

 

iv. Where lip speaking services are required by hard of hearing participants and, where this service has not been acknowledged, interpreters shall, with respect draw this matter to the attention of the facilitator. Where proper provision of such service by Interpreters may compromise effective communication, Interpreters shall discern and determine the language service to be provided after consideration of that which will effect the proper management of the communication flow between d/Deaf and hearing clients.

 

b) Message Transfer & Team Interpreting Protocols

 

i. When working in teams Interpreters shall, after due consideration, negotiation and agreement on changeover protocols, act with respect and integrity towards each other and their clients. Changeovers shall occur at or about those times during the discourse which will ensure the least message and which are most suited to a change in Interpreter e.g., a change in topic, context or content and which is close to the agreed time for changeover e.g., 20 minutes -30 minutes and that time which will not compromise the effective management of the communication flow between participants.

 

ii. When working in teams, Interpreters shall, by way of mutual support, and effective management of communication between participants, be mindful of their responsibility to each other. While one Interpreter may be 'working' it shall be the responsibility of the second Interpreter to remain attentive and prepared to provide any information that may be required by the colleague e.g., linguistic, semantic contextual etc. i.e., shall be in readiness to prompt in the sign ~ voice or the voice to sign task.

 

iii. Where a signed presentation or paper is to be delivered and where the source language is Auslan or manually represented English and, where the target language is spoken English one Interpreter shall accomplish the sign 7 voice task with the one presenter.

 

iv. If a team Interpreter is present then a prompting protocol is negotiated and applied when required.

 

c) Message Transfer & Protocols in the Deafblind Setting

 

i Members of the Deaf community who are also blind or vision impaired shall hereinafter be referred to as deafblind. The additional protocols, which apply this setting, do not constitute a breach of the Code of Ethics.

 

ii. Interpreters in setting shall manage the flow of communication between deafblind and sighted hearing clients and between Deaf Relay Interpreters and hearing clients when required.

 

iii. In the deafblind setting, Interpreters shall undertake all proper preparations from initial contact to completion of an assignment i.e., allow time to adjust to clients' preferred style of communication; discuss clients' specific language requirements; acquaint themselves with the level of environmental description required; provide visual information and cues; identify each speaker by name or agreed name sign; describe layout of the room and any obstacles which may cause injury to an independently mobile deafblind client etc.

 

iv. Hearing Interpreters and Deaf Relay Interpreters shall negotiate interpreting requirements and work together in a cooperative and collaborative manner to ensure effective management of the communication between deafblind and sighted hearing clients.

 

v. During any break in the assignment Interpreters shall assist or facilitate clients' access to refreshments or personal requirements before availing themselves of a rest break.

 

vi. Interpreters shall at the end of an assignment inform the facilitator of any transport needs required by their clients; inform their clients of their departure and await acknowledgment.

 

6. Employment

 

a) Working Conditions

 

i. Interpreters shall rightfully request briefing and debriefing sessions when and wherever possible.

 

ii. Interpreters shall require that working documents and texts to be interpreted at an assignment be received in advance.

iii. Interpreters shall work with Interpreter colleagues in a supportive, cooperative and collaborative manner during any given interpreting assignment.

 

iv. Interpreters shall, when working in a team, acknowledge and share responsibility for management of the communication flow between all participants.

 

v. Interpreters shall not without good reason, leave their colleague/ s to work alone during an interpreting assignment.

 

vi. Interpreters shall not perform any other duties during an interpreting assignment except that which will effect the proper management of the communication flow between all participants.

 

vii. Interpreters shall ensure that personal mobile telephones are switched off and that paging devices are not carried on their person for the duration of an interpreting assignment.

 

viii. Interpreters shall not perform any other duties except that of Conference I interpreter during the hours for which they have been contracted to provide conference interpreting services. ix. Interpreters shall accept responsibility for their personal well being and take due care in relation to Occupational, Health and Safety issues. Where Interpreters are employed in permanent, full or part time or casual interpreting positions and, where, opportunity to work in team interpreted situations is minimal or non-existent thus increasing risk of Occupational Syndrome, h1terpreters shall inform and educate employers, teachers and/ or liaison staff on interpreting related Occupational, Health, and Safety issues.

 

b) Payment and Fees

 

i. Interpreters shall judiciously request compensation for interpreting services. Interpreters shall charge an appropriate fee with regard to NAATI accreditation level, relevant academic qualifications, skill level, years of experience and the nature of the assignment.

 

ii Interpreters shall not offer any fee or favour in order to obtain clients or, an introduction to a prospective client.

 

iii. NAATI accredited Interpreters shall offer gratis interpreting services with discretion. iv. Student Interpreters shall offer gratis interpreting services with discretion.

 

7. Professional Development

 

a) Professional Competence and Skill

 

i. Interpreters shall seek to extend their linguistic, cultural and general knowledge by undertaking tertiary study and/ or participation in workshops, professional meetings, interaction with professional colleagues and reading of current literature in the field.

 

8. Professional Solidarity

 

a) Support Colleagues

 

i. Interpreters shall support and further the interests of the profession and their colleagues and offer each other reasonable assistance as required e.g., actively participate in the professional association, offer mentorship to less experienced colleagues etc.

 

ii. Interpreters shall refrain from making comments injurious to the reputation of colleagues.

 

iii. Interpreters shall not accept any assignment, which might detract from the dignity of the profession e.g., interpreting the planning of criminal activity etc.

 

iv. Interpreters shall refrain from any act, which might bring the profession into disrepute e.g., inappropriate dress, over involvement [interference] in the content of an assignment, malicious or libellous gossip regarding clients or colleagues, breaches of professional conduct, breaches of impartiality or confidentiality etc.

 

b) Trust and Respect

 

i. Interpreters shall promote and enhance the integrity of the profession by fostering trust and mutual respect between colleagues.

 

ii. When working in teams Interpreters shall treat each other with respect and trust, mindful of their individual and shared responsibilities in the effective management of the communication flow between clients.

 

iii. Any differences of opinion among interpreters shall be expressed with candour and respect, rather than by denigration.

 

iv. Interpreters shall attempt to resolve any dispute with the professional association in a cooperative, constructive and responsible manner.

 

9. Professional Independence

 

a) ASLIA Representation

 

i. An Interpreter shall speak or write on behalf of ASLIA members only when requested or authorized to do so by the President or Secretary of ASLIA.

 

ii. When making public statements [spoken, written, or signed] regarding the professional association, sign language interpreting, d/Deaf community or sign language services provision or on politically sensitive issues etc. and, where addressees may believe the Interpreter to do so as a representative of ASLIA, it is incumbent on the Interpreter to clearly state his or her position.

Supplementary Notes on Professional Conduct

To ascertain the appropriateness or otherwise of a proposed course of action in the interpreted setting, consider whether or not it might facilitate, enhance, impede or compromise effective communication.

To ascertain the appropriateness or otherwise of a proposed course of action in relation to professional conduct, consider whether or not it might be harmful in any way to the reputation of colleagues, the general interpreting profession, or the communities to which sign language interpreting services are provided.

Download

Download "Guidelines for the Application of the ASLIA Code of Ethics" document (39k)