Some people think that BSL / sign language interpreting is an automatic process and that all the hard work is in the physical effort of producing signs. This is not so. Interpreters have to watch, listen and then think carefully about how to express the meaning of one language to the other. As with spoken language interpreting, there is word-for-word correlation. The grammar of English and BSL is different and therefore the original meanings and intent of the first language has to be repackaged to make sense in the second language. All this takes time and effort!

The mental process of interpreting takes time and users normally experience a short delay of five to ten seconds between the original message and the interpreted message.