- Hello, Julie Judd speaking. 

- Yes. Yes I am, I'm chairperson of the Australian Association of Sign Language Interpreters. 

- How can I help you? Right. You're wanting to book an interpreter? We actually are not a booking agency but we do have organisations that are booking agencies that support ASLIA and the work that we do for interpreters. You can find those listed on our website and you just click on their logo and you can contact them for pricing and to talk to them about availability. 

- Yeah.

- Oh, you might need, if it's for next week you might need to get onto it straight away because there is a supply and demand issue. There are a lot of jobs going at the moment and not enough interpreters, so you really need to try and book as far in advance as possible. And if you need somebody for more than an hour, then you will need to book two interpreters due to occupational health and safety.

- So they work in tandem. Well you can use the agencies. The booking agencies for Auslan interpreters, as I mentioned, they're listed on our website. Or you can book interpreters directly. So the way that you can find interpreters if you're not part of the network of Sign Language Interpreters, is you can go to what's called the NAATI website. 

- So NAATI is the National Accreditation Authority for Interpreters and people who are practitioners will have their names listed and some people chose to have their details public. So you can find interpreters there. However, you need to be aware that interpreters all have different skillsets, and some are NAATI are certified interpreters with credentials and there are two main levels. 

- One is Certified Provisional Interpreting which is for very simple interactions that are not complex, and then there's Certified Interpreter level interpreting. And usually for most meetings, high-level interactions, you would need to think about getting a Certified Interpreter level interpreter. So those things are listed on both our website in the find a member page, and also on the NAATI page for the interpreters personal details. 

- Yep. Interpreters all have to go through a re-certification process every three years, and that's through NAATI. That includes several hours of professional development that has to be done over that three-year period for them to achieve their re-certification. ASLIA provide professional development opportunities and again they're listed on our website and interpreters need to complete the set amount of hours and professional development. Yeah. Mhm. 

- Well yes, deaf interpreters are definitely used more and more now and usually deaf interpreters work with an Auslan English interpreter. It could be in situations such as if the deaf person that requires an interpreter is from, say another country and uses a different sign language. They may have additional disabilities and not use a conventional sign language system. 

- And also for a number of different reasons perhaps at conferences, we have deaf interpreters on the platform who can provide information to deaf participants in a more naturalistic Auslan format. 

- So yeah, they're very, very skilled and we'd recommend that you think about having deaf interpreters where appropriate. Mhm. Yep. Well, feel free to give me a call if you have any further difficulties, but as I said, probably your best bet would be to contact the agencies in your state. 

- There are some agencies that cover the whole country, and have interpreters on their books from each state. So hopefully that helps and yeah, let me know if I can help any further. 

- Thank you.

- Bye for now.