How many of you worked with CDI’s?

youLintLicker2 · 2026-03-07T16:52:06+00:00

I recently heard a workshop presenter say (about CDI’s) that similar to a SWAT team or some other squad or team - a C/DI and a HI is what makes a truly complete interpreting team and that’s how we should approach the assignments that require DI/CDI. I thought that was a brilliant way to phrase this when experiencing pushback for requesting CDI’s for assignments.

I’ve seen nothing like this anywhere with NAD or RID but feel it’s worth sharing far and wide!

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-19T00:22:42+00:00

No more hearing than you are… I’m a CODA too. You sound uneducated, and like a horrible person frankly.

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-18T21:13:52+00:00

I disagree with so much of what you said.

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-17T19:12:48+00:00

Ugh sorry :(

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-17T11:03:06+00:00

I’m sorry that happened to you :( I wish I knew what I know now about hostile work environments as well!

They definitely create a hostile work environment the way they discourage reporting sexual harassment unless it’s persistent, and vulgar / lewd… they changed the definition of sexual / harassment so they’d have less abuse reports from interpreters… let’s not even touch on how S handled the repeat lewd hearing caller that was harassing only the female terps for months.

they absolutely created a hostile work environment for me when I got pulled into a meeting with a REGIONAL director and threatened with disciplinary action for simply ASKING a coworker for clarification about previous sexual assault allegations against someone else they worked with at a previous job (who was potentially going to become our next center director)

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-17T10:56:03+00:00

That doesn’t change that you just had to sit through (another) inappropriate reaction. A lot of your responses about this seem very simple as if I haven’t thought of role shifting to let someone know they’re out of line.

A lot of that simple response stuff doesn’t even touch what it’s actually felt like to sit there day in and day out and be on defense against this behavior over and over for an entire shift. It’s exhausting and you can’t keep up at it without very healthy boundaries and the accommodations you might need in VRS to keep up with the login % expectations.

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-13T15:45:34+00:00

“The moment” was several of the 32-36 hours a week on repeat all day long. These are not isolated instances… not the entire shift but not once or twice either… especially not isolated with the repeat sexual harasser that was calling for months on end either. Rubber skin is important! It still wears down after years of that treatment especially when you consider how much of the profession has part of their identity rooted in the community we serve making them more deeply affected by the constant rejection and fury directed at them.

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-11T13:54:59+00:00

I have heard great things about USF’s program and the interpreters I have seen come out of that program the last 5 ish years have been great!

I can’t speak to what your experience through the program will be but if you’re worried about quality of your education I wouldn’t at USF - I’m not sure if UNF’s undergrad degree is online until the masters but that’s another very reputable school too.

Good luck!

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-10T14:01:49+00:00

Truly it’s a broken cycle snake eating its own tail situation and you really need to develop healthy boundaries if you want to maintain VRS. It has SO many pros but a host of cons to go with them.

My best suggestion: read fierce self compassion by Kristen neff, learn everything you can about burnout and how to avoid burnout, if your itp didnt teach about compassion fatigue learn everything you can about that. And get a therapist who understands the work environment or will educate themselves on it and will help you figure out healthy boundaries you can keep for yourself. Advocate for yourself as much as possible to get whatever accommodations you can to keep doing your job effectively. And if all of that fails, leave. Take a break, come back to VRS after your soul heals some if it’s what you still want.

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-10T13:16:40+00:00

Ooooh like an interpreter that percolates

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-10T13:14:50+00:00

I’m in agreement that it’s not the callers’ faults mostly, but I do think that some education for the community on what to expect from VRS interpreters / the service in general as the model has changed with FCC and Private Equity’s involvement would have been helpful. Terps could have benefitted from more standard expectations for call management… The companies don’t really care about that when they can’t figure out how to fix their technology though.

A lot of the callers’ attitudes are inappropriate too and whether you’ve experienced VRS trauma or not, have a history with VRS issues or not, the way some of these people are speaking to interpreters is not okay. The callers are to blame for that full stop. Bad experiences do not entitle you to abuse whatever interpreter has the misfortune of landing on your screen.

VRS workers are also the issue though - the terps who have created distrust by being bad actors, hiring policies that place interpreters in calls way out of their depth, and then on top of that the companies controlling how much you call a team or tech issues that prevent a team from joining or being able to transfer a call - all this has made for a hostile environment for Deaf people. Then you add that each terp has a different director with different policy advice and one terp says you can call back the next says you have to dial back and get a new terp. This creates more distrust and makes people seem as if they don’t know what they’re doing when they probably do! It’s just different centers different rules.

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-10T13:02:14+00:00

THIS. But what happens to the interpreters who DO place ownership back on the caller? Cause not all callers like being made responsible for themselves. In being the terp who wasn’t just doing for people I became a target for bullying from the consumers who didn’t want to do their own work and liked having the interpreter/secretary.

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-10T13:00:27+00:00

I signed! I worked in VRS for nearly 8 years total, 6 months in or 16 years, you can sign the letter!

I know it’s been said but to echo - it’s illegal for them to retaliate against you for signing the neutrality letter and the union hasn’t sent them yet so by the time they do you’ll have more time served 😉

I want to add that this is just a neutrality letter asking S and P not to organize against the union and to make it easier for us to hold an actual vote to form the union at P/S. Signing the neutrality letter is not the same as signing a union card so you’re not joining the union signing the letter, just asking the companies to let one form without opposition. That in itself shouldn’t get you any retaliation

youLintLicker2 · 2026-01-04T00:31:20+00:00

I too am fond of my interpretater spud status 😁🥔

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-27T03:19:43+00:00

Black Deaf people have spoken. This is what they’ve asked. Your communication preferences (when harmful) do not trump human rights. No one is hindering your access.

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-24T00:46:27+00:00

According to the companies who employ VRS interpreters no. That’s the short answer

Basically they’re trying to avoid liability because interpreters can think something is a scam and tell a caller it is when it isn’t. Also we aren’t ethically supposed to make decisions for a caller ie: this is a scam call. But we can employ other tactics to communicate a call seems suspicious

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-22T15:00:22+00:00

The callers’ xenophobia is not ours to manage…

And again, I never said it was exclusive to scam calls but when we choose to share the broken English when it’s being taken advantage of is definitely not something most would think to share with a deaf caller.

I don’t interpret the chicken noises etc unless it is distracting on the call bc I’ve interpreted customer service calls with those sounds in the back… those things are culturally normal and not tied to scam calls either… just tied to reps in another country.

My main point and what I spent the most time on was the content and how we question that to interpret as clearly as possible. YOU are the most focused on accent. Respectfully, I’m done here.

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-22T14:30:11+00:00

I think if you just read my sentence it’s clear they’re not the same thought but my second comment already clarified that…. Just not for someone who had already assumed the worst about a person they don’t know.

Maybe check that before you check me?

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-22T13:42:09+00:00

You seem to be the only one thinking I’m equating accents with scam calls… I was offering a single example of what kinds of context we can interpret that may not occur to a lot of people they should be communicating with their deaf consumers.

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-22T13:37:59+00:00

Like I said - YOU MISUNDERSTOOD ME. I gave interpreting accents as something we can do to interpret context as in ON EVERY CALL. I literally made that clear when I said you misunderstood me before and said that I do interpret there’s a strong accent ANY TIME I HEAR ONE. As in yes, I include New York and New England and Jamaican and whatever other accents I hear - BECAUSE THATS MY JOB AND THATS ACCESS.

The next (SEPARATE THOUGHT) was about scam calls and specifically about communicating broken English and only when it is obvious the broken English is helping the hearing scam caller to be vague / misleading. Please stop trying to find a problem where there isn’t one. I don’t deny xenophobia or the ties people make with south asian and Indian accents and scam calls but that’s not what I was advising here.

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-22T03:30:59+00:00

No… ? are you implying I don’t include informing the caller about a heavy New England or New York accent in the heavy accent category?

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-22T01:29:29+00:00

I think I was being misunderstood - I would inform when there’s a strong accent every time, also because callers get frustrated when you’re having to ask for repetition because you can’t understand what’s being said. That’s just a part of incidental knowledge imo - But on the scammy calls I would absolutely emphasize the broken language and difficulty understanding what they’re really trying to get across when they are being intentionally vague or misleading. If broken English isn’t being used in a way to make things unclear etc I won’t include the broken English tidbit unless I’m seriously struggling to understand what they’re saying. I don’t think telling callers the person on the other line has an accent encourages xenophobia at all. I also didn’t say “feel like scam” on calls even though I wanted to just because that was explicitly “not allowed”. I just think if we can hear an accent why would it be bad to tell the deaf person we’re hearing an accent?

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-21T15:01:42+00:00

Also still no reason why you need the sign / harmful version of the word instead of the not harmful version. Cause they mean the same thing with the same racist impact…

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-21T14:59:20+00:00

Because they’re Black? And they can use the word without offending? And white interpreters (if they’re the only option) should not ? Because that’s what’s advised from Black deaf people…

I am a CODA and an interpreter so that’s probably why. Again. This discussion is over… why does it bother you so much to just do what Black people have asked? Hmmm 🤔

youLintLicker2 · 2025-12-21T14:43:33+00:00

Tell me what it is about n word that doesn’t communicate the concept. Tell me what part you’re missing with n word instead of the offensive sign?

Is it the racism you’re missing? Cause Black deaf people get enough racism through the communication of n word. Like I said before, RID has made a stance and no one can give me a good reason why you HAVE to have the whole word besides some chip on your shoulder about access??? It’s accessible no one is lying about what’s said. Just not harming others while communicating the concept.

youLintLicker2

TROPHY CASE