DARS-DHHS SPONSORS INTERPRETER TRAINING AT SWCID <\/p>\n
Once again the DARS Office for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services
\n(DHHS), as a part of its 2009 Texas Interpreter Education Series, made
\na gallant effort to upgrade interpreter skills by providing what is
\ncalled \u201cweek-long training\u201d at SWCID in Big Spring. This time, one
\npart of the Series was on training deaf interpreters\u2014and was
\nprobably the first such intensive and lengthy training ever provided
\nfor deaf interpreters in Texas, or in this country. In welcoming the
\ngroup of 34 participants, David Myers, DARS-DHHS Director, said Texas
\nhas been slow to use deaf interpreters. He sees the demand increasing
\nand wants to be able to meet that increasing demand.<\/p>\n
Of the deaf individuals who spent five days last week immersed in the
\nprogram, some are already BEI Certified Intermediary Interpreters,
\nwhile others are preparing themselves for certification. Deaf
\ninterpreters in Texas must be certified, either by BEI or RID, to
\nqualify for most intermediary interpreting assignments, while
\ninterpreting in court requires court certification. Intermediary
\nInterpreting generally involves a deaf interpreter who is
\nexceptionally skilled in ASL and English and who teams with a hearing
\ninterpreter to provide highly specialized and skilled interpreting
\nservices to deaf individuals who may have language limits.<\/p>\n
This deaf interpreter training was coordinated by Ann Horn of
\nDARS-DHHS and Byron Bridges of CSD of Texas, who also served as
\ntrainers. Other trainers were Eileen Forestal from New Jersey, Gino
\nGouby from Washington, DC, Trenton Marsh from Utah and Lauri Metcalf
\nfrom San Antonio. Participants also came from other states, including
\nNew Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas, and from as far away as California.<\/p>\n
A second week-long interpreter training at SWCID was for trilingual
\ninterpreters, the third such training sponsored by DARS-DHHS in as
\nmany years. This carefully screened group of 21 participants were
\nfluent in Spanish, English and ASL. The focus was on upgrading their
\nskills. Trilingual interpreting is an emerging profession that gives
\nrecognition to the communication needs of Hispanic deaf individuals
\nwhose first language may be ASL and whose family\u2019s first language is
\nSpanish. Later this year the BEI will begin to test and certify
\ntrilingual interpreters with tests that were developed for DARS-DHHS
\nby the University of Arizona. The trilingual training was coordinated
\nby Yolanda Chavira of DARS-DHHS and the instructors were Gina Gonzalez
\nfrom Austin, Carmen Garcia from New York, Adriana Guevara from Houston
\nand Jorge Dieppa from El Paso.<\/p>\n
Randi Turner, DARS-DHHS Training and Advocacy Coordinator, headed up
\nthe planning effort for this training and served as liaison with SWCID
\nfor making arrangements for the use of their facilities, and served as
\nthe on-site facilitator for both trainings. The partnership with SWCID
\nis especially important as this is the 5th consecutive year that
\nDARS-DHHS has used their facilities for interpreter training The
\ntraining also involved partnering with ASL Services (Florida), CSD of
\nTexas, Sorenson VRS and Viable VRS; their contributions were
\ninvaluable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DARS-DHHS SPONSORS INTERPRETER TRAINING AT SWCID Once again the DARS Office for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services (DHHS), as a part of its 2009 Texas Interpreter Education Series, made a gallant effort to upgrade interpreter skills by providing what…<\/p>\n