Speech-to-Text Interpreting in Secondary Schools: Requirements, Strategies, and Challenges for the Parties Involved

Speech-to-text interpreting (STTI) in secondary schools in Austria is implemented at individual schools as a support service for pupils with hearing impairments. STTI has been professionalized in Austria since the
end of the 2000s. To date, however, there have often been many uncertainties in the actual implementation of this service. Pupils, teachers, other professional educators in schools, decision-makers, and funding bodies often deal with requests for STTI for the first time, to a great extent
not knowing how cooperation with professional interpreters may be
initiated and managed. A recent regulation sets the binding legal basis for how interpreters may be integrated into educational settings, providing rules for the service in order to ensure inclusive and accessible teaching and participation.
Which specific measures are required to raise awareness of the different parties involved are discussed in this chapter: to this end, best practice by interpreters providing STTI at two schools in Vienna are presented.