BU Center for the Assessment of Sign Language Interpretation (CASLI) Practice Test

Providing access for DeafBlind participants relies on building a interpreting team that can cover each person’s communication needs with redundancy and cross-modality support. For mixed modalities, a two-person interpreting team per consumer is often used to ensure accuracy, continuity, and safety, while still allowing coverage if one interpreter is temporarily unavailable.

In this scenario, there are four DeafBlind consumers: two who rely on tactile ASL, one who uses close vision, and one who uses Protactile. Each of the four needs a dedicated two-person team to ensure their messages are accurately conveyed through their preferred modality and to support real-time back-and-forth communication. that accounts for eight interpreters.

Additionally, conferences typically require two extra interpreters to handle coordination, cross-modality bridging, and coverage during breaks or unforeseen needs. Together, that brings the total to ten interpreters, ensuring robust access for all participants.