Saturday, May 7, 2011

Interpreters in Court

A deaf person on trial in Britain was given the right to an interpreter as early as 1725. This was typically a family member, friend, missionary, or teacher, according to researchers at University College London. They found court records of 30 such trials that took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. The first record of a court interpreter appears in 1771. Details of the study are in the journal Sign Language Studies.