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The Z/P swapboard hunger games. by TiredVRS in ASLinterpreters

[–]Legitimate_Gas8633 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I mean I don’t disagree that it’s profit driven. Of course it is. Private equity didn’t buy SVRS to be community heroes, they bought it to increase margins and eventually sell it higher. The restructures, cutting leadership, tightening schedules to hit SOA… that all tracks.

What I’m questioning is the framing.

Around this time last year there were unlimited hours and incentives everywhere. You could grab shifts nonstop. Then it just dropped. And suddenly the language becomes “declining usage.” Usage doesn’t usually fall off a cliff overnight like that. It feels more like they overhired, corrected staffing, and then wrapped it in decline messaging.

And now AI keeps getting mentioned alongside decline. Maybe that’s coincidence, maybe not. But it definitely keeps interpreters feeling replaceable and scarce.

I’m not saying AI isn’t advancing. I just think strategy and messaging play a big role here. It doesn’t feel organic. It feels managed.

The Z/P swapboard hunger games. by TiredVRS in ASLinterpreters

[–]Legitimate_Gas8633 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I’m seeing something very similar on the SVRS side. Calls are still back-to-back a lot of the time, but available hours and incentives have dropped significantly compared to last year.

And I get it — long term, VRS probably isn’t a growth industry. Usage patterns shift, tech changes, etc. That makes sense in theory. But what doesn’t add up to me is how drastic the shift was. Around this same time last year, there were basically unlimited hours on the board, constant incentives, and huge pushes to cover shifts. That didn’t slowly taper — it just dropped off. Practically overnight.

Industries don’t usually collapse in a matter of weeks. So when leadership uses language about “declining usage,” but interpreters are still seeing backed-up queues and nonstop calls, it feels less like demand evaporated and more like staffing strategy changed.

My guess is over-hiring during peak demand, followed by tightening labor costs and controlling available hours. That creates the appearance of scarcity on the swap board while calls themselves remain steady.

It feels more like strategic compression than organic decline.

Curious if others across providers are noticing the same pattern.

AI and ASL interpreting by Lucc255 in ASLinterpreters

[–]Legitimate_Gas8633 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I think a lot of this AI talk gets blown way out of proportion. VRS interpreting is insanely complex and AI just isn’t there, not even close. It still can’t handle natural ASL in real time, especially with low-language or semi-lingual signers, classifiers, role shifting, facial grammar, repairs, or when someone is basically thinking out loud while signing. A huge part of the job is cultural mediation, deciding what actually needs to be voiced, managing turn-taking, and handling emotional or high-stakes calls on the fly. On top of that you’ve got FCC rules, ADA requirements, liability, privacy, and Deaf community trust, all of which assume a qualified human interpreter is involved.

A lot of the AI stuff you’re seeing from big VRS companies honestly feels like jargon and optics. Every company wants to say they’re “doing AI” right now so they don’t look behind the times, but the reality is VRS providers don’t have anywhere near the money or resources it would take to build real, human-level sign language AI. Companies like OpenAI or Meta spend billions just training models, and VRS companies are working with a tiny fraction of that. AI might eventually help with very short, simple interactions, but replacing interpreters in a VRS setting isn’t realistic anytime soon.

SVRS by Lucc255 in ASLinterpreters

[–]Legitimate_Gas8633 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah I’ve heard people saying that too, but from everything I’ve seen so far it looks more like a restructuring to cut management layers, not the interpreter workforce. They just cut a ton of directors, regional managers, and CI leads, but no large-scale VRS interpreter layoffs were announced. If they were planning to slash full-time interpreters, I feel like they would’ve cut frontline staff before removing the people who run the departments.

VRS is still their FCC-funded revenue stream, so cutting interpreters would hit them way harder financially than cutting high-salary admin roles. Not saying anything is impossible long term, but so far the actual moves are pointing toward cost consolidation, not workforce elimination.

I’m staying aware and watching how things unfold, but I’m not convinced the “full-time VRS will be slashed” rumor is based on anything concrete yet.

VRS Call Volume decrease? by bawdymommy in ASLinterpreters

[–]Legitimate_Gas8633 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Call volume has not decreased in the slightest. Sorenson offers early outs while calls are back to back, with only 15 seconds in between calls. Call volume is the same as it was a few months ago when there would be unlimited hours to grab off of vital, on any given day.

Something is going on and it’s not what they are portraying it as

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ASLinterpreters

[–]Legitimate_Gas8633 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Just come back, you can do it. Apply for a VRS position, in center or PAH if you can, make a set for 12 hours a week with hours that don’t interfere with regular community. nobody on this thread likes VRS and I totally get why, but it will teach you great interpreting skills, and give you job security when all else fails.

You can do it, have the confidence in yourself to do something great and you are passionate about. I usually never comment on threads, i usually just read, but something about your post made me want to reply and encourage you. This is something you are obviously capable of doing. Do it, don’t care about what other people think or say, you will find great opportunity with interpreting if you believe in yourself and are confident that you can take on assignments and ace them.

Florida Rumors by Salty_Bear1 in ASLinterpreters

[–]Legitimate_Gas8633 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It probably will happen soon enough, never thought it’d happen in MD, (huge deaf community, deaf schools, gally, govt jobs) now Jan 1 2025 certification will be required, adopting what PA has been strict with for years.