I am Katy Smillie-Wilcox and I have been working as a British Sign Language/English interpreter since 2012. I am a fully qualified registered interpreter (RSLI) with NRCPD. I am also a qualified Professional Supervisor.
For interpreting, I attended Heriot Watt University and in 2011 graduated with a Graduate Diploma in Interpreting Studies and skills (BSL/English). This allowed me to register as a trainee and start gradually gaining experience. I then completed NVQ Level 6 in BSL/English interpreting to become fully qualified.
In 2025, I completed a Diploma in Integrative Supervision of Individuals and Groups to become a Professional Supervisor. My own professional supervision has greatly enhanced my interpreting work and I am passionate about sharing the benefits it can give other interpreters.
My interpreting experience has been varied. One area I specialise in is educational settings, both for deaf students and deaf teachers/lecturers. Education is an area I very much enjoy working in. My love of education led me naturally to work more with young people in other settings such as storytelling sessions for younger children, political education for young campaigners and theatre skills workshops for example. I also have extensive experience working back stage in theatre rehearsals and television productions. More recently I started to work in performance settings on stage too, such as theatre, concerts and comedy shows. I also work in many other domains such as medical, community, conference and more.
Since spending most of my time in the US, my interpreting has largely moved online. Working online for either interpreting or supervising requires a different skill set to working face to face that luckily I took to very naturally. As well as working online myself I am also available to work with interpreters looking to increase their confidence working online, please contact me for details.
There may be occasions where I am not the right interpreter for a booking and in those cases I can refer you to someone better suited.
In addition to being registered by NRCPD I am also a member of the Association of Sign Language interpreters (ASLI) and the National Union of British Sign Language Interpreters (NUBSLI)