(979) 695-7092Onsite Sign-Language Interpreting (ASL)
SLIS dispatches certified ASL interpreters to hospitals, courtrooms, university lecture halls, worksites, and public events across Central Texas. Every interpreter we send holds BEI (the Texas state credential) or RID (the national standard) certifications; many hold both, plus specialty credentials for medical, legal, or educational work. Our founder, Sherri Roberts, has interpreted professionally for over thirty years and still vets the roster personally.
Onsite interpreting puts a credentialed interpreter in the room with the Deaf, DeafBlind, or Hard-of-Hearing participants. The work runs in both directions at once — voicing signed ASL into spoken English, rendering spoken English into ASL, reading physical cues, adjusting position, catching the overlap and interruptions that live human conversation produces.
Medical Interpreting
The first question in medical interpreting isn't whether the interpreter is qualified. It's whether they've been in the room before. A nurse calling for a stat interpreter at 2 a.m. doesn't have time to explain the workflow, to walk a stranger through OR protocol, or to diagnose why the last agency sent someone who couldn't sign medical register. Our medical roster is interpreters who've already been there — who know how to position themselves before the attending walks in, who understand the difference between informed-consent pacing and emergency-triage pacing, who know when stepping back is the right move and when to step closer.
The regulatory layer matters for procurement and less for the patient. ADA Title III obligates hospitals and clinics to furnish qualified interpreters at no cost to the patient. ACA Section 1557 extends that to every federally funded health program and expressly prohibits untrained staff, family members, and minor children as medical interpreters. HIPAA governs every interpreter who comes into contact with protected health information; we sign Business Associate Agreements as routine and train the medical roster on the confidentiality standards that separate a bedside interpreter from someone just rendering English into ASL.
We staff the range: emergency triage, surgical pre-op and post-op, OB/GYN through labor and delivery, psychiatric and behavioral health intakes, oncology treatment planning, cardiology, primary care, discharge planning, pharmacy counseling, end-of-life conversations. For pre-verbal patients or Deaf patients whose ASL fluency is affected by cognitive, psychiatric, or developmental factors, a Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI) is often the right call. We dispatch one when the clinical picture requires it.
The most common failure we see is the hospital that lets a relative interpret because the patient asked. It happens mostly in ERs — a cousin steps in, everyone nods, and thirty minutes later someone realizes the cousin missed the allergy disclosure. Federal law prohibits it. Plaintiff's attorneys love it. And it isn't fair to the family member, who didn't sign up to render a cancer diagnosis into ASL. Call for an interpreter. That's what we're for.
Legal and Court Interpreting
In legal settings, when there is a court reporter capturing everything that is being said, it is paramount to have a qualified court interpreter. The record only shows what the interpreter says; it does not capture the ASL the Deaf participant is using. Any error in interpretation goes unnoticed by the court. This is why a credible agency staffs legal situations with BEI Court certified interpreters and/or RID-certified legal interpreters, teams multi-hour depositions without being asked, and coordinates with the court coordinator before the session rather than after the encounter.
The constitutional floor is sometimes treated as background. It shouldn't be. The Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments require Deaf parties to receive communication access equivalent to hearing parties — not approximated, equivalent. Texas Government Code Chapter 57 converts that principle into a state-level mandate for qualified interpreters in court proceedings. Appellate courts increasingly treat unqualified interpretation as reversible error. Running a trial with an uncredentialed interpreter is a decision a defense attorney will take to the court of appeals and win.
Our legal interpreters cover courtroom hearings and jury trials, depositions and arbitration, attorney-client consultations, mediations, Miranda advisements, law enforcement interviews, immigration hearings, and probation or parole meetings. Attorney-client privilege binds every interpreter we send. What's said in the room stays in the room — during the engagement and after it.
Educational Interpreting
Post-secondary is where Sherri began to build this agency. The university relationships came first; the rest of the service lines grew from there. We match interpreters to discipline — a chemistry-literate interpreter for the chemistry lab, a literature-literate one for the literature seminar — because content familiarity is a must in a fifty-minute lecture on quantum mechanics. It's what keeps a student from falling a week behind in one afternoon.
K-12 is its own world. IEP meetings where the district is outnumbered by parents and advocates. Parent-teacher conferences that run long because they need to. IDEA disputes, Section 504 plans, standardized testing accommodations, assemblies, athletics, performing arts. The educational interpreter in a K-12 setting is often the only daily ASL user the Deaf student encounters. Continuity matters at that age, and we staff with that understanding.
For colleges and universities, we coordinate directly with disability services offices — scheduling across the semester, substitute coverage during illness, consistent service across breaks and finals. Students whose accommodation plan names text-based access can also receive CART, TypeWell, or C-Print transcription from the same agency.
Workplace and Government Interpreting
HR covers more than anyone expects. Job interviews, onboarding, benefits enrollment, performance reviews, ADA interactive-process meetings, disciplinary hearings, exit interviews — every one a setting where the communication has to be clean and the record has to be defensible. Under ADA Title I, the employer owes the accommodation. Trying to save three hundred dollars on a hiring interview has cost companies a lot more than three hundred dollars.
For government agencies subject to ADA Title II, we cover public hearings, city council and county commissioner meetings, licensing appointments, social services intake, emergency management briefings. Procedural pace matters in these settings, and so does the specialized vocabulary of legislative, regulatory, and administrative communication. An interpreter who's never sat through a zoning-variance hearing isn't the right dispatch for one.
Mental Health, Religious, and Performing Arts Settings
Three specialty tracks worth calling out because each requires something other than general certification.
Mental health interpreting is the one most agencies get wrong. Therapy, substance-abuse counseling, psychiatric evaluations, settings where the interpreter facilitates clinical rapport without disrupting it, handles affect-laden communication accurately, and supports rather than interferes with the assessment the clinician is trying to conduct. We send interpreters with specific mental-health training to every behavioral health engagement, and we know which ones on the roster have the temperament for it and which ones don't.
Religious settings — worship services, pastoral counseling, weddings, funerals — carry their own vocabulary and their own register. Performing arts are a category of their own: theatre, stand-up, concerts, conferences, any live staging where dynamic expressive interpretation is the point. The interpreter who shines in a hospital isn't always the right dispatch for a Sunday morning service or a Friday night comedy set. We staff these assignments differently.
Service Area
SLIS operates from Bryan/College Station, Texas. Our four primary cities are Huntsville (Walker County, anchored by Sam Houston State University), Bryan, Brenham (Washington County), and College Station. The contractor network also covers Navasota, Madisonville, Caldwell, Hearne, Franklin, and the smaller communities between. Established accounts typically see next-day availability for routine work.
For scheduled assignments we travel — Austin, Houston, Waco, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio. Travel fees apply and are quoted at booking. Multi-day conferences, trial proceedings, and recurring educational placements in metro areas are the most common travel engagements.
Outside Central Texas, our video remote interpreting (VRI) and remote transcription services cover all 50 states.
Credentials and Quality Control
The phrase "certified ASL interpreter" carries too much weight for how little it sometimes means. The credentials behind it are worth unpacking.
BEI — Board for Evaluation of Interpreters — is the Texas state credential, administered by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. RID is the national credential, issued by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf after examination. Many of our interpreters hold both. For specialty dispatches we recruit specifically: CCHI CORE CHI or BEI Medical for medical settings, BEI Court or RID Legal Specialist for courtroom work, BEI Educational Interpreter for K-12.
Credentialing is just the starting point. Beyond it, every SLIS contractor clears a background investigation, documents current continuing-education compliance, and works under the RID Code of Professional Conduct — the profession's standard on confidentiality, role boundaries, accuracy, and business practices. All SLIS interpreters are expected to adhere to professional standards at all times.
What a Session Actually Looks Like
Most first-time clients want to know how the minutes before and the time during the appointment actually unfold.
Pre-session. The interpreter runs a brief check-in with the hearing participants — names, roles, technical vocabulary, any referenced documents. Two minutes of prep prevents ten minutes of mid-session clarification.
During. You speak to the Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing person, not to the interpreter. Eye contact with whoever you're addressing. Natural pacing, pause at logical breaks. If the interpreter raises a hand and says "interpreter needs clarification," pause and rephrase. That isn't the interpreter being difficult. That's the interpreter refusing to gloss over a gap in comprehension, which is exactly what you want.
Team interpreting. For sessions over sixty minutes we send a team of two. They switch every fifteen to twenty minutes. This isn't a premium feature. It's the working assumption, because cognitive fatigue measurably degrades accuracy after about twenty minutes of continuous interpretation. The RID Standard Practice Paper documents it; our scheduling reflects it.
Post-session. The interpreter discusses nothing about the assignment with anyone outside it. The RID Code of Professional Conduct binds every interpreter we dispatch to strict confidentiality. That obligation doesn't end when the meeting does.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far in advance should I book an onsite interpreter?
Five to seven business days for routine work. Medical, legal, and peak academic placements often need longer. The earlier the request, the better we can match specialty credentials to setting. Use our scheduling portal or call the office.
What if I need an interpreter on short notice?
Call us. We maintain an on-call network for urgent requests. ER visits, law enforcement encounters, and crisis situations rarely come with notice, and neither does the contractor availability they require. Same-day isn't guaranteed, and rush fees apply after-hours. A working contractor network across Central Texas gives us coverage smaller agencies can't match.
How long can one interpreter work before a team is required?
Anything over sixty minutes gets a team. The RID Standard Practice Paper on Team Interpreting sets the threshold; cognitive fatigue after about twenty minutes of continuous work is the reason. For high-cognitive-demand settings — conferences, courtroom, a university lecture in molecular genetics — we team regardless of duration.
What certifications should I look for?
In Texas, BEI (the state credential). Nationally, RID. For medical, BEI Medical or CCHI CORE CHI. For court, BEI Court or RID Legal Specialist. Ask any agency to verify credentials in writing before you book. We do.
Can I request a specific interpreter?
Yes, and we encourage it. Continuity matters — in therapy, education, recurring corporate meetings. When the requested interpreter isn't available we offer an equally qualified substitute and tell you in advance, not when they arrive.
Does SLIS staff large events, conferences, and performances?
Yes. Multi-day conferences, corporate retreats, commencement ceremonies, theatrical productions, concerts, worship services. Event interpreting takes advance coordination: script review, speaker briefing, staging logistics, and lighting for interpreter visibility. Two to four weeks out is the comfortable window.
What is the cancellation policy?
Cancellations forty-eight or more hours before a single assignment carry no charge. Later cancellations and no-shows may bill at the contracted rate — the interpreter reserved that window exclusively for you. Specific terms live in the service agreement. Rates and details on our rates page.
Onsite or video remote? How do I choose?
Onsite places a credentialed interpreter in the room: right for complex, lengthy, or emotionally sensitive situations, and required for DeafBlind consumers who need tactile or pro-tactile interpreting. Video remote interpreting (VRI) connects an interpreter by secure video and is faster for shorter encounters. We provide both and tell you which fits. Sometimes, that means telling someone to book less than we've already quoted.
Book an Onsite Interpreter
Call for onsite when the stakes, the duration, or the nature of the encounter make physical presence the right answer.
Schedule online or contact us to talk through what you need. Onsite covers the Brazos Valley and Central Texas; VRI and remote transcription cover the rest of the country.