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One fifth of the requests for a free Flemish sign language interpreter remained unanswered in 2023. That’s what De Zondag writes. The shortage of Flemish sign language interpreters continues to increase year after year.
Deaf and hearing-impaired people are annually entitled to a number of L-hours (living situation), O-hours (education) and A-hours (labor), during which they can use a sign language interpreter free of charge. The Flemish government has set aside a budget for this.
However, supply cannot keep up with demand. Last year, the Flemish Communication Assistance Bureau for the Deaf (CAB) received requests for approximately 130,000 interpreting hours. Of these, only 104,283 hours were completed, which means that an interpreter could not be provided in a fifth of the cases.
There are several reasons for this uneven growth. For example, there has been a shortage of interpreters for years, while the demand is increasing year after year. In addition, the government only works with people who have completed a master’s degree, a course that is far from popular. Furthermore, the compensation is also too low and there is competition with better paying bodies, such as the VRT and the federal government.
Lieven Kind, director of the CAB, advocates making the profession more attractive. This should also help to convince people who work part-time to work full-time.