What does “repetitive motion injury” mean?
Most people have heard of carpal tunnel syndrome, or tennis or golf elbow. These are examples of repetitive motion injuries. People who sign for an extended period of time without resting their hands, wrists, arms, and shoulders are in danger of sustaining a repetitive motion injury. Risk of injury is one of the reasons that, when an interpreting assignment is expected to be lengthy, more than one interpreter is advised. When more than one interpreter is assigned, they are working as a team and will agree to take turns every 20 minutes or so, allowing each interpreter the physical rest needed to help in avoiding this type of injury. This working together arrangement is called “teaming.” For an informative article online about the risk of injury to sign language interpreters, see: Sign Language Interpreters at High Ergonomic Risk, an April 2008 piece published by Science Daily.
