Country Report Denmark
The small country Denmark has a population of 5.4 million people.
The capital city is Copenhagen and around 600 000 people life in Copenhagen.
This is also where you can visit the Danish Deaf Association (DDL) and KC the school where they educate Sign Language interpreters. KC also educates interpreters in the city of Århus. In 2008 only 7 or 8 graduated from Århus and app. 14 from the school in Copenhagen. The spoken language is Danish, and most children study English, and also typically German, Spanish or French. There is app. 5000 Deaf using sign language in Denmark.
Deaf-schools have existed in Denmark for many years and we are fortunate that a lot of deaf are educated as teachers and work in these schools.
Also there are several centre-schools where children with special needs for example hard of hearing children are attending school in separate groups. Since the introduction of CI the number of pupils in the deaf-schools is declining. This year not a single child starts school in a deaf-school. Doctors in Denmark warn parents that the use of sign language will ruin their children’s benefit from their CI. This situation of course will affect our employment within the next ten years. Most children are now in centre-schools or, even integrated alone in a mainstream school. A big worry is how long there will still be a Danish Sign Language when none of the children learn it….
Since 1984 there has been an education for Sign Language Interpreters. Today it is a 3 ½ years education where you can start from scratch, not knowing any sign language. Last year KC the school training sign language interpreters has joined the very large school called “Professionshøjskolen” or “University College Copenhagen UCC”... This we hope will result in an upgrade of our education so that we can achieve a Bachelor degree. FTT holds a position on the newly established “educational commission”. For the last 15 years the number of applicants for the interpreter training has been very high (up to 200) with room for only 50 students. This lead to situation where your grades from school needed to be very good in order to access the education, but the number of applicants is decreasing these years due to many factors.
In 2008 7 interpreters graduated from a further education program with special training on deaf-blind-interpretation. The training was a pilot project at KC where new ways of interpreting was practised. The normal interpreter training contains only a few weeks of “knowledge of deaf-blind-interpretation” so this is exiting new training for us, but it also leads to a discussion on the role and the work of the interpreter and the “guide-assistants” for deaf-blind that we have in Denmark.
The Association for Sign Language Interpreters (FTT) has existed since 1977. We have today 193 members but in total we think that there are 250-300 interpreters working in Denmark. Almost all interpreters working have past the official exams from KC and there is no other certification or accreditation in Denmark. Most of the public funding covering the cost of sign language interpretation is given though only to interpreters with the official education which protect us somehow in relation to the problem of self-taught interpreters. We may soon need a register of educated interpreters though since more small companies and independent interpreters emerge.
For many years the challenge in Denmark for sign language interpreters has been to stay healthy meaning that work-related illnesses were very common 10 years ago. We, our union and the company employing interpreters focused on this, and made some regulations on the number of interpreter hours per day and per week. The number and length of breaks during the day was defined and some definitions on assignments suited for one interpreter or two interpreters were changed. Also one company employed a physiotherapist and that is a thing we can recommend.
Now our challenge is to maintain this protection of the interpreters working conditions within all the companies and self-employed.
The development of our trade benefits from companies willing to invest time end money in their employees, and access to further education. The competition within such a small group makes you lonely and self-centred and unwilling to work for the development of our trade and organisation. It is a big challenge for us now to stand united as interpreters.
Our loyalty is a bit challenged. Do we stay loyal to ourselves, our employer, the Deaf or our trade?
For a few happy years, because of the pilot-project “Social Interpreter”, it was possible for deaf and deaf blind to ask for an interpreter for almost anything they wished for, but the success got to big and the money did not last. Therefore now the project has been narrowed in and there is very limited funding. Danish Deaf Association (DDL) has received public funding for a survey on the whole area of Sign Language Interpretation and how it could be organized better. We supported their application and have cooperated with them on it, and we now look forward to reading the results of the survey.
A similar type of survey has been made in Norway and also a Nordic seminar on the subject took place in Oslo this year. The organizers of the work seminar asked the deaf associations in the Nordic Countries to choose 5 delegates each and as the only association DDL asked the interpreter association to participate so FTT was there but none of the other interpreter associations were invited. The subject of organizing, paying for and educating interpreters will be a theme for the following years for sure.
We hope to make more activities for the members of FTT, to strengthen the network within the interpreters and share knowledge and information.
On behalf of FTT, Denmark