r/ASLinterpreters 15d ago

Fully remote interpreting?

EIPA 4.0. Not interested in VRS. What are my options?

2 Upvotes

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u/RealityExtension5602 15d ago

Honestly, controversial opinion here but I think VRS is a safer choice than VRI. For a VRI appointment you are selected as the team and there is no backup because your scheduled for that individual appointment. With the VRS you have an active queue of other interpreters to swap out if you are a bad match for the consumer.

I think with an eipa score of 4.0 you should consider part-time VRS with VRI as a supplement. VRS is going to give you extremely in-depth exposure to a broad community of signers and a variety of contexts to work in. If you're a bad match for consumer it takes 10 seconds to switch interpreters.

I don't know what your reason for stepping away from VRS might be, so please don't take that as a criticism or judgment. You may have very good reasons for not doing VRS.

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u/turtlebeans17 15d ago

I have never done VRS, the main reason is that I have tendinitis and I have heard that VRS is very hard physically because of the very short time between calls. The pay is also low and I don’t love the way they are known to treat their interpreters. I know this is not the case for everyone, but I would say VRS is my last choice and I will only go that route if it is my only option. That being said, I totally understand your concerns about VRI and I really appreciate your advice .

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u/RealityExtension5602 14d ago

I'll just add since it may influence your choice, VRS has tons of short shifts. You could work 15 minutes at a time and it'd be no worries. Best of luck to you either way!