Akbar Sikder is a hearing child of two deaf parents and grew up bilingual in English and British Sign Language (BSL). He studied translation and interpreting at the University of Manchester, and now works as both a BSL/English interpreter and as the executive director of an interpreter training center. He has published on the lack of ethnic diversity in the signed language interpreting profession and was a founding member of the Interpreters of Colour Network (IOCN), where he also served on the board. In 2022, he was awarded the IOCN Evolution Award in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to the network and the signed language interpreting profession.”
