Title 5
Businesses and Professions

Chapter 71
Licensure of Interpreters for the Deaf

§ 5-71-3. Definitions.

(1) “Board” means the state board of examiners for interpreters for the deaf.

(2) “Certified” means any individual who is a certified member of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. (RID), its successor agency, or other agencies as approved by the department in consultation with the board.

(3) “Certified deaf interpreter,” “deaf interpreter,” or “deaf intermediary interpreter” means any individual who is deaf or hard of hearing and who is a certified member of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. (RID) or its successor agency approved by the department in consultation with the board.

(4) “Consumer” is an individual who is deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing, or an individual with a disability who does not share a common means of communication. This may include, without limitation, American Sign Language (ASL), visual, gestural, auditory, and tactile mode of communication.

(5) “Deaf-blind interpreting” means linguistic information through sign language acquired by individuals who are deaf-blind through their preferred methods depending on the causes of their combined vision and hearing loss, their background, and their education, such as close-vision interpreting and tactile interpreting, while spoken language is conveyed into sign language (e.g. ASL), and sign language (ASL) is conveyed into spoken language.

(6) “Department” means the Rhode Island department of health.

(7) “Director” means the director of the department of health.

(8) “Educational interpreter” means an individual who has specialized certification (elementary and secondary education for grades kindergarten (K) through twelve (12)) and is a certified member of RID or its successor agency approved by the department in consultation with the board in the provision of sign language interpreting to students who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind in grades preschool through twelve (12).

(9) “Emergency” means an urgent circumstance that demands immediate action in order for a consumer to avoid imminent harm or loss. In the event of an emergency, the consumer may elect to use the services of a nonlicensed interpreter as set forth in regulations promulgated by the department.

(10) “Intermediary interpreting” means interpreting services rendered by a deaf person to facilitate communication between another deaf person and a licensed interpreter.

(11) “Interpreter” means any person who engages in the practice of interpreting as defined in subsections (5), (10), (12), and (15).

(12) “Interpreting” means conveying spoken English into American Sign Language (ASL), or conveying American Sign Language into English, or interpreting English to and/or from a visual gestural system.

(13) “Screened deaf interpreter” means any person who is deaf or hard of hearing and who presents proof of an active state screening, or its equivalent, and presents proof of successful completion of an examination as approved by the department in consultation with the board.

(14) “Screened interpreter” means any person who presents proof of an active state screening, or its equivalent, and presents proof of successful completion of an examination as approved by the department in consultation with the board.

(15) “Transliterating” means conveying spoken English into manually coded English, or conveying manually coded English into spoken English (sign-to-voice), or conveying English on the lips so that it is accessible to speech reading (e.g. oral transliterating, or any auditory communication as a visual form in English such as cued speech).