Hi everyone,
I wanted to share my recent experience interviewing with Simplified Group BPO LLC for a remote interpreter role, as well as a warning regarding their onboarding practices for candidates based in the UK.
After passing their initial screening and voice recording assessments, I received an offer email asking for a national criminal record check and copies of my National ID / Passport to be sent directly over email/WhatsApp.
Because I am based in the UK, I questioned why an offshore company needed raw scans of sensitive identity documents over unencrypted channels, and I offered to run an official UK Basic DBS check through GOV.UK instead.
Here are the major red flags that followed:
1. Refusal of Official UK Payment Links: When I submitted a Basic DBS application through GOV.UK and provided the recruiter with the secure, official £20 GOV.UK payment link, they refused to pay through the government link.
2. Request for Western Union: Instead of paying the £20 fee on the GOV.UK portal, they asked me to send them my full legal name, ID number, country, and city so they could transfer £20 to me via Western Union.
3. Improper Criminal Check Advice: They previously advised that I could walk into a local UK police station to get a criminal check printed, which is not how UK criminal background checks work (the UK legally uses the DBS portal).
4. Data Security & AI Voice Recordings: During the application process, they require reading and recording scripted sentences in your native language and English. Combined with requests for raw passport scans and Western Union details, this presents significant identity harvesting and voice-data privacy risks.
5. No UK Tax/PAYE Setup: They operate as an offshore independent contractor model paying via PayPal/Payoneer, meaning no formal employment contract or PAYE tax records are issued.
Has anyone else encountered this Western Union / DBS refusal with them?

My boyfriend is considering taking a travel job where we would be 3 months in different locations. Has anyone travelled with Sorenson (or other VRS)? I already work VRS for them in center so that’s why I ask. Thanks

I get that this is rage bait for some. I personally think that the innovation is interesting, even while acknowledging the insanity. Don't come at me! I also agree D/deaf people don't need fixing!

Genetic deafness by and large makes up such an infinitesimally minute group of our D/deaf communities and this specific gene a subsection of that. I would love to see the numbers, but most of the personal stories I am told by my local community is related to high fevers, German measles, Usher's Syndrome (which is not from otof), and meningitis.

Back in 2017 I landed a great internship up in Alaska. The program was amazing and rewarding but the grant funding fell through and i was not able to continue. Unable to afford tp put myself through the program I relocated to California and found work at a local interpreting agency, school for the deaf and alternative school. Since I have relocated to Seattle and got back in school to finish my BA. Im still stuck locating an internship or apprenticeship. I send my resume out or connect via LinkedIn to non-profits, VRS, smaller LLCs, discord groups, community colleges but the opportunities and resources leave me mass applying with no feedback or luck. Im in several communities as a BIPOC and have experience in K-12, 1-on-1 aid, legal, and human resources. While I still take CECs and asl classes here and there im a little defeated at the idea that ill have to push off graduating another year.

I would love some mentorship to see how I can enhance my resume and experience. I would really like to graduate and pursue my passion again. Landing an internship/apprenticeship would be ideal however I am open to any leads available. Feel free to DM me or ask away!

Thank you guys so much for reading this and for anyone who might have some feedback for me!

I learned an unconventional sign for "accident" that I'm now second-guessing.

Most people use the variation of "wrong" in this context (or a depiction of a vehicle accident for a different context). I remember learning an alternative: both hands in V, DH near forehead, NDH further down near shoulder. Palm orientation is inward, motion is 2 motions of moving in and back out. Think of the sign for "trouble" but with Vs.

Does anyone recognize this sign or did I just make this shit up?! I have a vague memory of seeing it in my ITP but the teacher may have included a caveat that I don't remember. Help!

First things first, I'm TiredVRS. I lost my previous account password and it's unrecoverable, so that's neat. Sorry for any confusion.

I'm an interpreter in Cleveland OH, and I contract to several agencies. The most unpleasant to work with is by far CIU.

They completely ignore my requirements, preferences, and qualifications. I have had their scheduler-owner refer to asl terps as "high maintenance," and "needy" on several occasions. They even fully named a fellow interpreter (who I did not know and was able to find to warn them) to me to complain about our neediness as a profession because "normal interpreters aren't like that". Turns out that according to the other terp, the owner-scheduler has been cyber stalking other ASL interpreters for their contact information and then demanding they accept assignments without telling them who's even contacting them.

The overall experience has been unpleasant, unprofessional, unhelpful, and absolutely miserable for me. I want to know if it's just me or if there's others of you with the same issue?

I've tried sending them our CPC, COE, Industry Standards, explanations and they haven't read a damn thing. I'm so sick of them.

Have any of you been successful at explaining the industry to a spoken language agency? How did you do it? What are your red flags when contracting with another agency so I can avoid dealing with this in the future?

I know it's not my job to fix and I'm sick of them, but they're just so obnoxious and I'm frustrated

Hi! I'm a senior at my ITP and I'm writing a lit review on the state of queer competency training for ASL interpreters in graduate level and CEUs. I'm in Illinois, but I'm very interested in what anyone knows about from within the last five years, ish? No wrong answers, but links are appreciated.

Hey! I’m looking into remote jobs for educational interpreting. This feels like such a silly question but I really would like to know the set up.

I know every place probably does it a little bit differently but what exactly does the interpreter have access to see? Is it the whole classroom, the teacher, the student ect. And then vice versa for the deaf student.

I’m a very visual person so i’m really struggling to picture it in my head. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

I’m in my fifth ASL class and my interpreting career is getting serious now. I have read lots of books both inside and outside of the classroom recommended my multiple of my deaf professors as well as deaf people from my local community but these are all books dedicated to either learning sign language itself or learning about the deaf community. Which I am thankful for so much

But now, I am feeling like I am lacking in understanding the interpreters side of everything, (that’s not to say the deaf communities experience with interpreters are not important) but I feel right now like I don’t know much about how interpreters feel about their careers. Like what they like and don’t like, what they think needs to be fixed and what is in general there experiences with becoming an interpreter.

I say this to ask, I love reading books and I am wondering if anyone knows of some books that they think future interpreters should read about the career? Like any good information on things you should know about being an interpreter, your rights as an interpreter, experience on being an interpreter in general and or experience on becoming one?

TLDR: I am interested in learning from people who are already in the interpreting career both new and experienced that have any book recommendations or a place to find good advice on becoming an interpreter.

Trying to gather some knowledge here before contract negotiation season!

I’m a Chicago based interpreter who enjoys concert interpreting but sometimes the workload of prep, not having a setlist until very late, not having proper sound packs, can really get the best of me. Trying to see how much people across the country are getting paid for this kind of work. Typically for one concert I earn 500-600 dollars.

What city are you in? What do you bill for?
If the proper sound packs/setlist aren’t given do you charge extra?

TIA!!

This is the ASL interpreter in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Obviously for the comedy she is wearing this low-cut dress and is above average lol.

I know that ASL interpreters almost always wear solid colors and garments that cover darn near all of their torso and neck so the hands are very visible. I’m sure one would never wear something like this, but that is my question. Could you if you wanted? Would you in a very formal evening like at an awards ceremony? Just wondering if there is just an unwritten rule about dress code for ASL interpreters.

I know it’s rare and probably unheard of but if so:

- what’s some challenges of working on the platform and how did you work around them

- if you could change 1 thing about the platform to make it more beneficial for interpreting what would that be

Hello, frustrated student here. I'm in my Deaf Studies program, pursuing IPP. Working as a home caregiver currently.

The people I work around are aware of my major. And suddenly it's become a popular topic of conversation to debate how ASL Interpreting as a job is counting its days. For example, a doctor I work with told me that he thinks "deafness will be cured in less than 20 years" and how that makes my education "useless". I pointed out that his logic makes the assumption that Deaf/HoH people want to be "cured". He literally just said "well of course they would". Not sure how to feel about that, other than disgusted.

More examples include a coworker telling me that AI is going to take over ASL interpreting. A nurse that I work with has also made the same "deafness will be cured" claim. Even a classmate of mine said that our future jobs are at risk of AI takeover.

Am I missing something? I'm somewhat in the loop surrounding the interpreting community, and I'm not seeing where all this fear mongering is coming from. I hate to say that it has knocked my confidence down a few pegs. I absolutely love what I'm learning and I don't want to believe any of these things are true or possible. Any words of wisdom from the professionals?

P.S. I'll bring this up to my ASL professor as well because I want to learn more about how these kinds of mindsets can be refuted.

I was talking with a colleague the other day during a break and the topic came up of the perennial challenge of interpreting speakers who are soft-spoken, or reading aloud from a text way too fast.

These types of mechanical difficulties happen every day in our work, and yet I haven't seen a lot of good ideas of how to prompt hearing folks to speak up or slow down in a way that actually makes a difference. Most folks will sincerely say "oh sure, I'll talk louder/slower" and then within five seconds return to their previous volume level or rate of speech. That was what I was warned in ITP and that has remained consistent through my 15+ years in the field. I'm not here to complain about that-- I think it's an interesting reflection on human nature, but I'm curious if anyone has found any tactics that can trick someone into changing, even for a minute?

The closest work-around I've seen (though it's not a total solution) is to ask someone to repeat a specific word or phrase that I might have missed. Under certain circumstances it may be feasible to interrupt and ask them to pause once or twice so their audience can (e.g.) read a text-heavy slide during a presentation. Beyond that, my sense is that getting someone to be a better public speaker or make their presentation style more accessible for audiences using interpreters is generally an ongoing task that has to be self-motivated, and there's little we can do in the moment to get people to moderate their speech to make it more accessible.

What has your experience been? Have you found any useful tips or tricks that have actually worked to get someone to speak up or slow down?

I am 30M I started doing ASL in High school, got very into it, spent my senior year as President of ASL Club and being student aid to an ASL 1 class with a deaf teacher who I was the full time Terp for one period a day. and was going to college for an ITP and deaf studies to be an interpreter, until my professor at the time chased me away from the field and life decided school wasn’t what I wanted to do.

I love ASL and the deaf community, have to this day many deaf friends, and even my Deaf Aunt and Uncle who I terp for at family functions.

Life has decided that the career I have been in for the past 6 years isn’t for me and I need to change. Last weekend attended my brothers wedding and while interpreting the speeches during the reception (we did hire a professional for the ceremony) a lot of my family asked why I never followed through and even had family offers for help to get myself working towards really doing this as I truly enjoy it and feel I am pretty good at it. I started signing 15 years ago and really never let myself get too rusty.

All of this is to say I am Very interested in actually pursuing doing ASL interpreting on a serious basis. But I don’t really know where to start at this point and would love some guidance..

I currently live in Colorado but will be moving to Central Valley California in 6 months, would love to be doing some work from home interpreting online through purple if that’s something I can do and get my foot in the door? Not sure. If anyone is able to give guidance and advice I would seriously appreciate it.

Hello! Does anyone know of any workshops or white paper type resources for best practices for interpreting for folks who are fluent in another sign language? I’m working to get CDIs in VRS settings but until then I’d like to make sure I’m doing everything I can. Thanks!

Do you all have workers comp as freelancers? And if so, who do you get it through / how much is it?

Any favorite resources for getting better at classifiers? Ideally videos I could copy along to or something

Is someone working with Kelly? I just had a first call from them but they don’t provide a specific schedule, they just said: it will be provided after the training. Have you had this experience? Also, would you recommend it?

Hello, I'm hard of hearing and I have autism. I didn't know I was hard-of-hearing until I entered the program, this was during the first semester when Deaf and HoH individuals noticed my habits and suggested I go to an audiologist.

That's how I got my hearing aids and I've had them for almost two years, but just now I have become aware that becoming a CDI requires a completely different program.

I was at an internship, and after failing so many times to interpret and listen, later on my mentor has given me advice on becoming an ASL interpreter as a HoH individual. Using subtitles, moving to different places to hear speakers better, adjuating myself, adjusting my hearing aids, bluetooth microphones, and that's when he tells me about the whole different program of being a CDI.

Before knowing this, my professor (deaf) has been suggesting getting my own interpreter to sign SEE (for some reason, I initially said ESL...) to me, but whenever I attempt to, I get the same answers, such as, "that's not how you become a Certified Deaf Interpreter".

I'm so lost, I want to cry. I looked into Certified Deaf Interpretation but the results I get are programs, and I'm not sure what else kind of research I'm supposed to do. As in, is it possible I can continue from here? Do I have to start over and enter a different program to become an ASL CDI? Can I become a hearing interpreter with accommodations like listed? (Subtitles, bluetooth microphones, etc.) Anything helps. I am determined to become an interpreter. Thank you, I appreciate it.

Edit: I really appreciate y'all's patience, aaa, y'all are really awesome. There are a lot of things I haven't been able to provide, I wish I was more prepared about this. I'm currently doing more research so that I can get a better idea on how to manage my way through this, and to answer any questions.

Thank you, everybody, for all of the information y'all have given. Please don't hesitate to say what you think would benifit me to read. I do not feel discouraged at all, I actually feel relieved by the support and help! I feel SO much better. Thank you, everybody. 🤟

Hi all! I’m a relatively new terp…I mostly do medical work at the moment (Dr appointments and hospital shifts). I have been really wanting to dye my hair a light pink color or maybe red with pink highlights. I would keep up on the maintenance so it still looks professional even if it is color.

I know there are a lot of mixed opinions on this. I dress very professionally always and I usually have my hair clipped back anyway…but of course you can still see the color if it is put back. I also do not do business meetings and job interviews, etc.

It is still very up in the air because I want to get opinions on it. Wondering what your thoughts are?