Hi Iheartjacques -
I worked with a young deaf women a few years ago (she was a college aged intern with my work team). For phone calls, she often used a phone service... I don't know who they were (I'm sorry!) but she'd connect with them via computer, and they'd call in to our meetings... she'd be able to sign with them from her computer, and see them signing back to translate, and then they'd speak for her on the call.
It seemed to work pretty well (it was a bit difficult on calls with lots of people, because the interpreter would sometimes have trouble breaking in to speak). The only weirdness for us was when the interpreter was male, and he'd introduce himself as our female colleague (imagine a deep male voice saying, "Hi, this is Sally!").
Do you have access to anything like that, and do you think it would be helpful? I can imagine that you wouldn't want to use that for therapy - yikes - because of how personal it is, but I wonder if it might be a way to do an initial phone meet-and-greet, if it could give you an idea of how the potential therapist thinks and communicates, without diving in to your personal stuff?
Obviously, it would be a million times better if they'd give you a free 15-20 minutes in the office though!
(And, apologies if you already know about these services. It struck me as something that could be helpful, but if you're already know/use these regularly, I don't want to be patronizing or annoying!)
The one that my coworker used was free, I believe... I just have no clue who they were, since I never needed to reach them directly.
Good luck. I hope you're able to find what you need!
Edit to add: I don't know if she used video conferencing and sign language, or just a text interface. The text interface would make sense, and wouldn't involve cameras!
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