Sorenson Celebrates Landmark Year in Sign Language Interpreter Training and Education

Year marked by innovation, impact, and excellence in training interpreters across the U.S. and Canada

SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Sorenson, the world's largest private employer of sign language interpreters, announced that in 2024, the company provided an impressive 30,000 hours of instruction to more than 4,000 interpreters, both within Sorenson and to emerging professional interpreters in the community. Additionally, Sorenson successfully conducted more than 700 training sessions covering 120 diverse topics. These trainings ranged from onboarding programs for interpreter new hires to advanced workshops on ethical decision-making, self-care strategies, and linguistic mastery in multilingual environments.

"This year, our education and professional development team outdid themselves and set new standards in interpreter education and professional growth," said Paget Alves, CEO of Sorenson, which connects more than 140 million calls annually. "Our goal is to equip interpreters across the entire interpreting community with the skills they need to provide outstanding service to Deaf people in diverse and high-stakes settings including Video Relay Service (VRS), Video Remote Interpreting (VRI), and Community Interpreting."

Sorenson provides programs and initiatives that advance career paths in the field of interpreting, including the Sorenson Deaf Interpreter Academy (DIA) which offers professional-level training designed to develop unique skills and knowledge for Deaf interpreters. This includes best practices in Deaf-hearing interpreter teaming techniques, benefiting both Deaf and hearing interpreters. In addition, DIA's online interpreter trainer repository provides vital materials on the advantages of Deaf-hearing interpreter teams, as well as skill-building resources for interpreters, trainers, and community members. In 2024, DIA supported more than 100 Deaf interpreters through its monthly training and cohort programs.

Sorenson's Synergy Program, a partnership between Sorenson and Interpreter Training Programs in colleges and universities across the country, reinforces the development of future interpreters by offering a variety of year-round customized learning opportunities for both faculty and interpreting students. Options include observation and webinar opportunities as well as resources for faculty and professional development. Over the past 12 months, Synergy provided more than 200 webinars to more than 900 interpreting students from over 98 different college and university programs.

"This year, Sorenson also expanded experiential learning opportunities for ASL/English interpreters by providing real-life, scenario-based practice in deliberate practice labs and mock interpreting scenarios," noted Sorenson Senior Vice President of Global Interpreting Services Laura Jones. "Since the pandemic in 2020, when education experienced a seismic shift to remote formats, these real-life, scenario-based experiential opportunities have been instrumental in fostering interpreter growth and expertise. Ultimately, this type of training for new and veteran interpreters benefits communication and understanding for everyone."

Sorenson's unwavering commitment to advancing inclusivity and professional development within the interpreting community is central to its mission. Sorenson looks forward to another year of meaningful training and development in 2025 and is ready to build on the momentum of 2024 to meet the evolving needs of the Deaf communities it serves.

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Sorenson Press Contact
Denisse Tamez
Director of Public Relations
Sorenson | (801) 287-9400
[email protected]

About Sorenson
Sorenson is one of the world's leading language services providers, combining patented technology with human-centric solutions. We strive to increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for underrepresented people through communication solutions for all. We provide call captioning and video relay services, video remote and in-person sign language and spoken language interpreting, translation, real-time captioning, and post-production language services. Our company impact extends beyond the 140 million conversations we facilitate annually — Sorenson fosters inclusive workplaces and job creation through communication accessibility and saves lives through interpreted emergency and health services. Sorenson is a portfolio company of Ariel Alternatives LLC's Project Black Fund, which aims to scale sustainable minority-owned businesses to serve as leading vendors to Fortune 500 companies, and we strive to manage and minimize our environmental impact. To learn more about our responsible business practices and efforts to advance human connection, visit sorenson.com or es.sorenson.com.

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