This section describes other professionals involved with facilitating communication between different kinds of people.

Relay interpreters/visual language specialists

In some situations providing a sign language interpreter alone is not sufficient to ensure effective communication. A deaf person who works as an intermediary (or relay) between the interpreter and the deaf person may be needed.

The role of this relay interpreter is to communicate the message using gesture and other visual strategies that are modified to suit the deaf person. They clarify any unusual, foreign, or personal signs that the deaf person is using which the sign language interpreter will not understand.

You should consider using a relay interpreter if you are aware that the deaf person has difficulty communicating using a sign language interpreter, or if you suspect that this may be the case.

For example, the deaf person may:

• have minimal language competence, so that they have difficulty in communicating clearly in any language form
• have mental health difficulties, which affect their ability to communicate clearly
• be deafblind
• use a foreign sign language for which no sign language interpreter can be found.

The use of visual language specialists/relay interpreters is still relatively new in New Zealand, although it is increasingly common overseas. For example, it has been used in overseas courts and mental health situations.

There is currently no training or qualification for visual language specialists/relay interpreters in New Zealand.

Where a visual language specialist/relay interpreter is required, you should talk with Deaf Aotearoa or other interpreter booking agency, or the sign language interpreter who you booked for the meeting.

Oral interpreters for lip readers

An oral interpreter is someone who will silently mouth a speaker's words so that a deaf/hearing impaired person, who does not use sign language, can lip-read. The oral interpreter may paraphrase what is being said, choosing words that are easier to lip-read. They may also use facial expressions, gestures or fingerspelling to communicate effectively.

The training programme for sign language interpreters in New Zealand has some limited training on oral interpreting. Some oral interpreters may have trained overseas where the role is also sometimes known as lipspeaking.

Requests for oral interpreters are rare - if you do receive a request, your booking agency may be able to assist.

Electronic note-takers and captioners

Electronic note-takers are typists who type summarised notes on a laptop. The notes may be projected onto a screen or sent to another laptop where they can be read by the deaf/hearing impaired person.

Captioners use specialist software and/or specialist keyboards (such as a stenographer's keyboard) to take a word-for-word record of what is being said.

There are very few captioners in New Zealand, and most trained electronic note-takers are employed in the education sector.

If you are looking for an electronic note-taker for a one-to-one meeting or small group meeting, you could ask an administrator or minute taker with typing skills to perform this role.