Sign language translators can work from courtrooms to police stations under legal conditions. Sign language translators are bound by a professional code of conduct. Translators are bound to confidentiality and their only job is to ensure correct interpretations, both linguistically and culturally.
Sign language translators must be eligible to work under legal conditions for legal interpreting. This can be verified by a national register of legal translators in the country or by other similar national systems that qualify for translators.
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Many countries have national laws that state that all deaf, deaf, and deaf who use sign language are entitled to a professional and qualified sign language translator in criminal proceedings.
In applying the law, we use sociopolitical models, knowledge of majority cultural and moral behavior, assumptions about the use of the same language, and the application of precedents. Neither of these assumptions worked well when the Deaf were introduced to a legal environment.
Hence, the claim that justice protects a person's rights is challenged if it is assumed that deaf persons have equal access to the legal system and achieve the same results as their hearing (i.e. deaf) counterparts.
Limited understanding in legal settings of the constraints imposed by the interpreting process when working between any two languages, with additional challenges arising when working between a spoken (auditory-verbal) and signed (visual-spatial) language.