Importance of Impartiality and Confidentiality in Community Interpreting

Name:
Unit 1 Understanding Community Interpreting L2 TASK 2A
Learning Outcome:
(2) Understand the ethical context for community interpreting.
Assessment Criteria:
2.1 Assess, in a community interpreting situation, the importance of impartiality
and confidentiality and its limits
Assessment - Written task
Read the two case studies and describe the issues in each of them,
explaining why impartiality and confidentiality are important in this context.
Case study 1:
The client begs the interpreter for benefits advice and some practical help. She
says she is desperate to get some money as she has three children and her
husband has just lost his job.
Case study 2:
You are interpreting for a pregnant woman, who has just disclosed to the GP that
she had two abortions before she met her current partner. Her partner does not
know about this.
Unit 1 Understanding Community Interpreting L2 TASK 2A
Task Submission
You can type your answers into the boxes. Remember to write in full sentences
and check your spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Introduction:
Define the 2 terms impartiality and confidentiality and briefly explain why
they are
important in a community interpreting setting.
Impartiality- Basically the term impartiality means that not being partial or biased
to anybody. The person who is impartial would carry a neutral view on any topic by
not favouring any of the parties. They treat each and every person equally. The

qualities which an unbiased person posses are, fairness, transparency, neutrality
and receptive. In order to maintain the professionalism, the interpreter will not
allow their feelings or emotions to intervene while performing any tasks, specially
in professional area of conduct. It is important in community interpreting because
in terms of following the professional ethics, the interpreter cannot connect with the
client personally as this would hamper the sanctity of its professionalism. Being an
unbiased interpreter will maintain the reputation of the person and will help in
meeting the requirement of the client(Ventouris and Loupaki, 2020) .
Confidentiality- Confidentiality is maintained in order to keep up some one's
privacy by refraining from sharing any kind of personal information regarding the
person who is sharing the private details. This would become more important in
the case when the client has provided the information out of confidence. The client
will going to share the personal information only when it feels secure in order to
disclose the required details. The interpreter must build confidence over the client
in order to build the trust. Neither of the parties who are associated with the client
should not be able to access the information rendered by the client.
Case Study 1:
What are the main issues (threats) surrounding impartiality and
confidentiality in this scenario?
The major issues arise in this case study are as the interpreter has refused to
provide any kind assistance to the client as she required some money in order to
fulfil the needs of her children and husband who lost his job due to some reasons.
She could opt any other irregular way to get the money after getting no help in
terms of advice from the interpreter.
What could happen if impartiality and confidentiality were not maintained ?
If the interpreter could not maintain the impartiality in this case, then he will not
able to provide any sort of advice to the client. In terms of the meaning of this term,
it is stated that the interpreter must be unbiased in order to give any kind of
suggestion or advice to the client(Pokorn and Južnič, 2020). On the other hand, if
confidentiality is not maintained, the information that the husband of the client has
lost his job and she is in need of money to fulfil the needs of her children will be at
great risk of getting disclosed, which can create dispute between the client and her
husband.
What should the Community Interpreter do in order to maintain impartiality
and confidentiality in this particular scenario?
In order to maintain the impartiality and confidentiality in this particular case, the
interpreter is required to provide certain suggestions or advice to the client by
judging the whole scenario with unbiased opinion. The interpreter must not think