Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would bring that back to the studies we've run and the results we've gathered, rather than anecdotal evidence that I might have seen in walking about interpreting booths and behind the scenes. I think there is one result that should concern everybody who sits in the room and wh

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. There are a lot of variable factors. Some are relatively visible and obvious to everyone, even to people who are not very familiar with the interpreter's job. When you are in the room, you see the participants more directly. When you are using Zoom, a de

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am entirely in agreement. It is not part of my experience or my technical expertise, but from an ethical point of view, the answer is pretty clear.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. If you want to find out more about acoustic shock, I think you're best advised to talk to my colleagues, who are experts in the field. I am not a medical expert. I can tell you that from the literature I have read, I am unaware of any direct link between cognitive load and a

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We're still in the process of finding out what the factors are that do change. What certainly does change more often than not is the makeup of the sound signal. I'm deliberately not calling it “quality of sound”, because that's a laden term in itself. There might be other factors

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Is this a question for me?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not sure I'm best placed to talk about the safeguards in terms of their potential health issues, because the link between cognitive load and the potential cognitive overload, and the resulting health issues, is still under-explored. Obviously, we know it is not a good thing f

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I will answer those questions, if I may, Madam Chair. It is hard to manage this when there are very few factors that we can affect. First, there are technological factors we have no control over, because we cannot control the Internet. Even if I have a high-speed connection, the

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think the challenge is a global one. With that said, other organizations have found formulas that work, at least for them, by trying to act in various ways, particularly by reducing interpreters' working time, but also by allowing passive hybrid participation. The effect of tha

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you for your question. I agree entirely; more research is needed. In our experiments, we have always worked with frequencies, but that is just one small part of the parameters that influence sound quality. We have little knowledge about many parameters. If we were able to

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Sure. Very briefly, I think one factor that needs to be considered is volume and frequency. We know from surveys that were carried out among AIIC members, for example—members of the International Association of Conference Interpreters—that the frequency with which they would be a

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to this meeting and giving me the opportunity to speak about hybrid proceedings. Unfortunately, I cannot be with you, but believe me, I am in a rather good position to6 understand the additional workloa