Preparation for a booking

The skill of interpreting lies partly in anticipation. An interpreter relies on knowing what someone is likely to say before they say it. It is very important that anyone presenting to an audience with Deaf people lets the interpreters booked know about what they will be presenting.

Preparation materials can be:

• Assignment details
• PowerPoint slides (or other presentation software) – finished or unfinished with slide notes (it is more important to ensure material is circulated in advance than it is for it to be the final set of slides)
• Meeting agenda and previous minutes
• List of attendees and their language use
• Teaching materials
• An abstract of the work to be discussed
• Relevant publications, articles, reports or other documents
• Video or app clips
• The presenter's biography
• Bullet points of the main themes to be presented
• Anything else you think is relevant

It is better to provide some preparation (including drafts) rather than nothing at all. A final copy is necessary prior to the assignment.

Please remember interpreters work for many other clients and they may have several bookings in the same day. Interpreters have many assignments to prepare for at any given time. Preparation must be sent in advance.

 2.1 How far in advance should you send preparation materials?

Preparation materials should be emailed at least one week in advance. One week is the bare minimum. Sending preparation two weeks in advance is much preferred and facilitates better working relationships. Sending preparation materials in advance allows the interpreter to schedule their own learning in good time, and to consult with yourself and their co-worker if they need to clarify or query anything. It enables interpreters to prepare as best they can, so that access is of high quality in both languages and for all Deaf and hearing participants.

For preparation materials that require intervention from the Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator (such as all DCAL shared and open meetings), please see below guidance. Please also consider the specific working hours of the Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator (currently Ms. Sannah Gulamani) and factor this in when you plan to send interpreter preparation materials.

To make sure the booking runs smoothly, please use the following procedures. For individual or non-shared meetings hosted at DCAL, organising preparation for interpreters is the responsibility of the person who made the booking, i.e. the meeting organiser or project administrator. The Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator collates and sends preparation for shared DCAL meetings and open talks or presentations only.

3.1 Internal and external DCAL activities

DCAL Science Meetings and All Staff Meetings

As these are shared meetings, preparation materials need to be sent to the Reasonable Adjustments Coordinator for distribution to interpreters. The host or Chair of the meeting is responsible for organising these preparation materials in advance. They should be sent by the Tuesday the week before the meeting is to take place, at the very latest and preferably earlier. If preparation materials are not sent by then, the speaker/meeting will need to be cancelled.

Note that in these cases of late cancellation, interpreters will still likely need to charge for the full booking (depending on their booking conditions). This negatively impacts Deaf staff and interpreters, as well as any other Deaf people in the community who may have wanted to book these interpreters at this time. Please avoid this situation wherever possible.

DCAL Invited Speaker Meetings

The host who makes the booking is responsible for putting the presenter and Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator in contact with each other, and for explaining the rules and deadlines of advance preparation materials to the presenter. The presenter is then responsible for sending preparation materials to the Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator in advance, so that they can forward to the interpreters on time.

If the presenter wishes to practise with the interpreters, this should be stated on the original booking form or email to the interpreters, as it will require additional scheduling for interpreter availability.

Note that for smaller team or individual meetings and presentations/talks that are not hosted at DCAL, the Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator is not responsible for coordinating preparation for interpreters. See below for information on how to coordinate bookings and preparation in other circumstances. For advice and guidance on booking and working with interpreters, please refer to our list of recommended interpreters, our FAQ and the remote working guidelines. These documents should cover any general queries.

3.2 Deaf staff attending wider UCL and external activities

BSL Beam may only be used for DCAL staff and their bookings. External UCL requests for support and booking procedures should be managed by individual departments.

If a Deaf staff member is interested in attending events external to DCAL, they must raise the booking request on BSL Beam and let other DCAL staff know that a request for support has been made. If the staff member is not yet registered in BSL Beam, they must first liaise with the Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator to set up their profile.

After raising an assignment on Beam, the staff member then contacts the organiser of the external event to reserve seats for themselves and interpreters, and to explain the procedure and dates for sending preparation to interpreters. The person who raised the booking request and the event presenter are both responsible for ensuring preparation materials get to the interpreters on time.

Another option is to ask the event host to arrange communication access. They may need guidance on how to do this and how far in advance it needs to be done. You can download the list of DCAL preferred interpreters and the Frequently Asked Questions about booking and working with interpreters.

3.3 Deaf staff teaching a course at UCL

As lectures are required to be uploaded to Moodle, the course director should give the Deaf staff access as a participant on the course. This will enable access to all of the reading materials. Additionally, email all presentations and other prep materials that are not on Moodle to the confirmed interpreters in good time. This will allow the interpreters sufficient time to prepare according to their own schedule.

3.4 Deaf staff attending a course at UCL or externally

As soon as they are accepted on to the course the Deaf participant should put the principal lecturer of the course and the interpreting co-ordinator in email contact with each other. However, as interpreters are often booked in a block for courses, they may be the ones who most easily request prep from the lecturer, or inform the interpreting co-ordinator of others to contact in good time for the following week. As with everything, good communication between interested parties is most important.

3.5 Deaf staff attending a conference at UCL or externally

As soon as attendance at the conference has been confirmed, the Deaf staff member should contact Access to Work (if interpreter funding is provided by them) and draw up a budget request to cover costs of travel, subsistence, accommodation and interpreting fees. Obtain quotes from preferred interpreters. Ensure that the Reasonable Adjustment Co-ordinator is kept informed of correspondence and approved budget.

You can download the list of DCAL preferred interpreters and the FAQ about booking and working with interpreters. Please feel free to share the FAQ with any event organisers. It can support you and them in arranging communication access for the event.

Please ensure that you read and refer to the Booking Interpreters section on the staff intranet for BSL Beam procedures and setting up new suppliers before proceeding with making bookings on BSL Beam:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/deafness-cognition-and-language-dcal/dcal-intranet/communication-support/booking

3.6 Two-way feedback

We encourage staff, students, interpreters and other communication professionals (e.g. note takers, STTR service providers) to provide feedback about communication access services at all of our events and meetings. Providing direct feedback is preferable for individual bookings. For example, the person who made the booking provides feedback directly to the BSL/English interpreters who worked during the booking.

However, for non-individual bookings (i.e. events/meetings) where there are several people involved and where feedback could vary between individuals, the chair/organiser and/or the Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator can collate and pass on feedback. If there are recurring issues, please do raise them with the Reasonable Adjustment Coordinator.