Switzerland – bgd

Country report 2011

Switzerland, bgd

Some facts about Switzerland:

  • Size: 41’284,6km2
  • Population: 7,7866 Mio.
  • Deaf: approx. 10’000 (0,14%)
  • Hard of Hearing: approx. 600’000

Facts about the German-speaking part of Switzerland:

Deaf: approx. 6’000

Sign Language Interpreters: 52 (working for Procom)

Members of bgd: 52 full-members, 10 passiv-members

Interpreter students GSD0913 16 (1 male)

Provider of Interpreter Service: Procom, Wald (near Zurich); www.procom-deaf.ch

Interpreter training: HfH, Zurich; 4 years, 2 days per week, 12 study weeks

+ practical training in the semester breaks;

2’000 lessons of which 300 hours are practical training www.hfh.ch

Because Switzerland is a multi-lingual country, there are three different associations for Sign Language interpreters:

ARILS Association Romande des Interprètes en Langue des Signes (French)

ILISSI Interpreti della Lingua dei Segni Svizzera Italiana (Italian)

bgd Berufsvereinigung der GebärdensprachdolmetscherInnen der deutschen Schweiz

(German)

1. Important events for our association in the past year

– AGM 2011: – 20 years anniversary of our assicioation

– bgd is providing 3 special further education offers for interpreters in coherence with the 20 anniversary

– finalizing and analyzing the first 3 years period of our internal qualification tool (quality standards)

– decision to activate a working group to increase the dialogue with our provider concerning better information flow, better interpreter booking system aso.

– further education from our provider to increase conference interpreting

2. Most important events for the situation of Sign Language interpreters in our country

– April 2011: 8 interpreters started with video remote interpretation (9-12am, 5 days/week, from September 1st also 4-7pm, 2 days/week)

3. Goals for our association for the coming year

– analyzing the first 3-years-period of our internal qualification (quality standards) and new discussion and modification of the qualification tool

Zurich, September 2011, bgd

Susanne Gadola, Therese Sommerhalder