Luanda, Dec. 26, 2024 (Lusa) - The president of the National Association of Angolan Sign Language Interpreters (ANILGA) said on Thursday that these professionals could disappear in the coming years in Angola due to the "lack of recognition" of the activity and lamented the "devaluation" of the profession.
"Unfortunately, interpreters are likely to disappear in the next few years because, without professional recognition, there will be no professionalisation and no training because legally it is not recognised as a profession," said Bismarque António.
Speaking to Lusa, he said that interpreters should be professionalised, "but unfortunately, this figure is not considered and is not officially recognised as a profession".
"And this is one of the great difficulties we face as interpreters," he stressed, emphasising that this is one of ANILGA's struggles, as is the case in Portugal, Brazil, South Africa and Namibia, where this activity is recognised as a profession.
According to Bismarque António, the employability of Angolan sign language interpreters is under threat due to a lack of legal recognition, and they currently work only as collaborators, service providers and "mixeiros" (as people with temporary or occasional jobs are popularly known in Angola).
The figure of the sign language interpreter in Angola gained notoriety during the Covid-19 period when they translated televised press conferences for the country's deaf/mute community.
Nowadays, these professionals are regularly present on Televisão Pública de Angola (TPA) 's main information services and sporadically at some public events.
He considered the presence of sign language interpreters on TPA's news services to be "a great gain for inclusion", noting that they only work as service providers, "which jeopardises their future" as they don't pay social security contributions.
Bismarque António, also an interpreter, emphasised the importance of this figure in the teaching and learning process for people with hearing impairments, noting that the absence of interpreters in classrooms compromises their inclusion.
"Many interpreters work as such [translators in classrooms], but they are not recognised as a profession because it is also very difficult for them to be employed as they are not part of the country's occupational qualification system," he said.
He also said that ANILGA had approached public institutions, namely the Ministry of Public Administration, Labour and Social Security, the National Institute of Languages and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, in search of recognition.
ANILGA was founded in 2022 and has 405 members across Angola's 18 provinces.
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Lusa
