The Sign Language Interpreter in Inclusive Education

This article discusses the significance of the fact that educational sign language interpreting is evolving within the context of current practices of inclusive schooling. Sign language interpreters ¹ are already in the process of defining their professional authority and autonomy in relation to educational practices. From the perspective of mainstream education, achieving inclusion of all deaf children requires that the spoken English classroom be made accessible to the sign language-using deaf child. This social interplay suggests a symbiotic arrangement – one in which language mediation of an expressly certified quality lends credibility to the social efficacy of educational inclusion. Moreover, this symbiosis appears as an effective and positive response to legislation, in particular in relation to disability discrimination acts. However, this article raises deeper concerns about long-standing educational inequalities, and in particular the troubled status of linguistic rights in relation to deaf children within mainstream education. The argument, articulated with conceptual tools developed by Pierre Bourdieu, is that interpreter-mediated inclusion leaves unaddressed a number of challenges and opportunities relating to the specific abilities and educational potential of deaf children, leaving them locked in limiting forms of educational participation.