The United States is the largest interpreting market in the world. Almost half of the interpreting providers on our ranking of top players in the world are from the US and have a combined revenue of USD 932.4 million.
Especially the market for medical interpreting is booming. However, it’s not the only lucrative sector in the US interpreting market.
In the United States, video relay services (VRS) are a well-established, government-funded system. It allows deaf people to make phone calls to anyone via a special video phone and instant access to a sign language interpreter.
VRS is funded by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). We looked into their current report and found that the FCC estimates the funding requirement for VRS at USD 482 million, confirming that this market is worth a substantial sum.
What’s even more impressive is the funding requirement if all remote public services facilitating communication for the deaf and hard of hearing are considered. These services include telecommunications relay services (TRS), speech-to-speech relay service (STS), and captioned telephone service (CTS), alongside VRS.
The FCC estimates the market for all theses services together at USD 1.4 billion.
Sorenson Community Interpreting Services is the largest VRS provider in the United States. They have thousands of sign language interpreters in more than one hundred locations throughout the US and Canada.
