Mock Legal Experiences

The Mock Legal Experiences provided supervised, low-risk mock legal interpreting experiences and observation opportunities to practitioners who completed the Legal Interpreter Training program. The Mock Legal Experiences sought to bring real-world scenarios to participants. The work of an ASL/English interpreter in any setting is complicated, demanding, and requires language fluency and specialized skills. Working in the legal specialty requires additional knowledge of legal discourse, principles, and protocol. Interpreters learning to work in legal settings have very few opportunities to observe interpreted interactions due to the low incidence and geographic spread of deaf individuals who are interacting with the legal system. The curriculum provided a five-week training which included interpreting experience and observation opportunities to increase practical experience in a low-risk setting, to reflect upon interpreting performances, and build confidence in applying the skills, knowledge, and attributes associated with working in court settings.

The mock legal scenarios had two possible participant roles, observer or interpreter.  Both roles were of great importance to this practicum experience. Both observers and interpreters

1. prepared for their assigned scenario(s)
2. engaged in facilitated, collegial discussions about the interpreting work
3. reflected upon their learning experience.

Program Information

• Program Results

  The Induction program served to increase the quality and quantity of practitioners specializing in legal interpreting.

  

  Of the 40 participants, 33 participants (82.5%) were Project CLIMB's target audience of Deaf, Coda, & POC.

  

  Of the 40 participants, 20 participants (50%) were Project CLIMB's target audience of Deaf & Coda.

  

  Of the 40 participants, 31 participants (41.3%) were Project CLIMB's target audience of BIPOC.

  The overall design was rooted in the same social constructivist framework as the Legal Interpreter Training and Mentor Training, valuing facilitated peer-based dialogue and scaffolding towards learning.  The interspersed sessions, over the 5-week period, allowed for paced skill development and knowledge building via hands-on application from session to session.

• Program Map

  The Program Map for the Mock Legal Experiences served as an “at-a-glance” reference guide that participants used to see the overall flow for program's modules.

• Time Commitment

  The curriculum totaled 25 hours and took practitioners an average of 2-4 hours per mock scenario over the five-week training.

Program Cohort