A proposal for the integration of social-haptic communication in the training of (tactile) Italian Sign Language interpreters

Public service interpreting for sign language users in Italy is still an under-developed service. One of the reasons is that Italy has not officially recognised Italian Sign Language (LIS) yet. As a consequence, LIS interpreters’ training programmes can vary a lot across the country and generally do not offer an academic title, contrary to what happens with spoken languages. This chapter presents an overview of the currently available training programmes for LIS interpreters. In the second part of this chapter, the focus moves on to the training for tactile LIS interpreters, that is, interpreters specialised in working with deafblind signers. Despite the fact that working as a public service interpreter for deafblind individuals requires several additional skills, there is no specific training for such interpreters in Italy. One of the additional challenges of being an interpreter for a person with deafblindness is knowing social-haptic communication (SHC). The introduction of SHC in the training of (tactile) LIS interpreters could dramatically improve the interpreting service for many deafblind people. A proposal for the integration of SHC in public service interpreters’ training is described.