Support services sign language interpreters provide to deaf students at presbyterian College of Education, Akropong

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the support services sign language interpreters provide to deaf students at Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong. This study adopted interpretivism paradigm and a qualitative research approach with a case study research design and was guided by four research questions. Census sampling techniques was used hence, all the nine sign language interpreters were involved in this study. Semi-structured interview guide was employed to collect data for this study and Braun et al’s (2018) thematic deductive analysis was adopted to analyse the data obtained. The results revealed that sign language interpreters had limited knowledge of their expected responsibilities though they provide support services to deaf students in various ways including both academic and non-academic activities. The results further revealed that the concerns of sign language interpreters were negative attitude of some regular education tutors, inadequate sign language interpreters, lack of assistive technologies and inadequate training programmes. Based on the findings, it was recommended that management at Presbyterian College of Education should employ more sign language interpreters and also provide telecommunication system, visual aids and videos alert system that would facilitate their work.