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Home | Projects
Projects
The National Consortium is working on a number of projects right now. Please click on the name of the workteam to read about their activities.
AA to BA Partnership | Deaf Advocacy Training Initiative | Deaf Interpreting | Interpreting Shortage/ Marketing Interpreting | Legal Interpreting | Linguistic and Cultural Diversity | Medical Interpreting | Mental Healthcare and Substance Abuse Interpreting | Mentoring | Video Relay Interpreting
AA to BA Partnership
Through programmatic initiatives and collaborative endeavors with partners and stakeholders, the AA to BA work team seeks to help foster quality interpreter education programs through enhanced communication, standards of practice, innovative curriculum models, and accreditation. The goals of the AA to BA Work Team are to forge stronger links between two year and four year Interpreter Education Programs, to elucidate for the field effective models of AA/BA partnerships that lead to successful interpreter education program design, and to establish and promote language standards and programmatic accreditation as critical underpinnings for educational success. This year, the AA to BA work team is working hard to obtain a “snapshot” of the current state of two-year and four-year interpreter education programs. To this end, the work team has sponsored face to face intensive meetings with each group. Program directors representing four year institutions met at the CIT Conference in San Diego, while program directors from two year institutions met in Denver for a two day Summit. By year’s end, the work team hopes to publish a comprehensive report of this year’s findings. Want more info about this team? click here!
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Deaf Advocacy Training Initiative
In keeping with RSA priorities, the overarching purpose of the Deaf Advocacy Training is to enhance the Deaf Community’s experience, effectiveness and utilization of interpreting services. The goal of DAT is to increase Deaf Community’s ability to self-advocate for effective communication by participating in educational training opportunities that are culturally relevant and linguistically appropriate. The Deaf Advocacy Team fully appreciates that the expertise to carry such an initiative lies within the Deaf Community. As a result, DAT has contracted with Communication Services of the Deaf, to study and identify the most effective way to provide this type of training. In the upcoming year, DAT will continue to contract with Deaf Community entities to develop the curriculum and implement the training. The current DAT work team includes two Deaf, two hard of hearing and two hearing members.
The DAT work team is seeking a qualified entity or entities to develop and implement a nation-wide education program to the Deaf Community. For more information, and to read the Letter of Invitation (LOI), please click here.
Want more info about this team? click here!
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Deaf Interpreting
The NCIEC is investigating effective practices in Deaf Interpreting Education. A partner network of seven Deaf interpreters has been convened to inform and carry out this work. Accomplishments to date and underway include:
- Conducting a pilot survey gathering demographic and work environment data from Deaf interpreters;
- Convening a forum on Critical Issues in Deaf Interpreting, June 2006;
- Presenting on Deaf interpreting at CIT 2006
- Compiling an annotated bibliography on Deaf Interpreting available online;
- Conducting a series of small focus groups and interviews, one in each of the NCIEC regions and one for Deaf interpreters of color for the purpose of identifying current DI practices and training needs;
- Presentation of Critical Issues in Deaf Interpreting at RID 2007;
- Conducting a national survey of Deaf interpreters to gather demographic and work environment data;
- Comparing and contrasting learning goals of current Deaf interpreting educational activities;
- Planning to design, offer, and assess the effectiveness of a Deaf Interpreting education institute Summer 2008.
Ultimately, the goal is to identify effective practices in teaching Deaf interpreting, including curriculum and appropriate delivery methods to meet the educational needs of current and future Deaf interpreters. You can visit their website to read the annotated bibliography, and access more updated information about this team. Want more info about this team? click here!
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Interpreting Shortage/ Marketing Interpreting
The NCIEC has embarked on a nationwide marketing campaign, 'Discover Interpreting,' designed to draw men and women from diverse backgrounds into careers as American Sign Language-English interpreters.
The goal of the project is to create an attractive, inviting image of interpreting as a viable career option through the production and dissemination of brochures and posters, a recruitment website, public service announcements (PSA), and other media materials. This initiative has disseminated 20,000 brochures to high school counselors, interpreting education programs, and other targeted audiences through mail, conference exhibits and packets, and established DiscoverInterpreting.com, where prospective interpreters can learn more about the field and the interpreting community. Brochures are disseminated in local high schools through mail and college recruiting events, college foreign language classes, and to agencies and businesses that interact with the Deaf and interpreting communities.
Next steps are to gather video testimonials by practitioners and consumers that will be used in the further website development and PSA production, to assemble media kits for use by interpreting education programs, and to continue to track response to the campaign and assess its efficacy. To order brochures, please visit DiscoverInterpreting.com. Please direct email inquiries about this effort to: Info@DiscoverInterpreting.com.
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Legal Interpreting
Interpreting in the legal setting is a long-recognized area of specialization in the field of ASL-English interpreting. Tradition from the field of spoken language interpreting and legal community contribute to the conventional way legal interpreting work is performed. As well, practices have been conceived by ASL-English interpreter practitioners over time through a process of application of theory drawn from the profession’s scholarship. As more scholarship and research emerge, practices evolve, improve and change. The NCIEC Legal Interpreting Work Team seeks to further this process by building a series of expert, practitioner, educator and consumer partnerships that stimulate the open exchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge that deepen our understanding of the work of interpreters in the legal setting.
The core work group is comprised of four individuals. This core group has forged partnership with a larger group of twelve experts who have and will continue to contribute to the targeted outcomes.
To date, the efforts of this work team have resulted in the following:
- Three focus groups totaling over 60 interpreters specializing in the legal setting who identified their training needs and priorities, and resources that would support their work. One focus group was comprised of interpreters who are deaf.
- Meeting of an expert work team of sixteen individuals who worked collaboratively to identify best practices, unique competencies and literature and resources useful to the teaching and practice of legal interpreting.
- A framework and draft of an annotated bibliography of literature and resources useful to the teaching and practice of legal interpreting.
- A draft of competencies unique to interpreters working in the legal setting.
- A draft set of best practices for interpreters working in the legal setting relating to team interpreting, division of roles and labor, establishing appropriate working conditions and other relevant themes.
Upcoming activities include finalizing the draft documents, building practitioner, educator and consumer consensus around the documents, and making them available for use by the fields of interpreting and interpreter education. Further, research and training initiatives will be fostered to increase the scholarship and preparation of interpreters for working in the legal setting. One illustration of this is the contribution of funding for two conferences in 2009—the Conference for Legal Sign Language Interpreters in May and a pre-conference being planned for legal interpreters prior to the RID Convention in August. Want more info about this team? click here!
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Linguistic and Cultural Diversity
The NCIEC is working to ensure that all NCIEC activities and products include perspectives and input from linguistically and culturally diverse communities. We actively seek feedback, counsel and involvement from many from stakeholders who are under-represented in our field. Furthermore, we understand that people access NCIEC information and programs through a variety of ways and work to ensure that all NCIEC materials are accessible to the broadest audience possible.
The Linguistic and Cultural Diversity team strives to continually assess and improve the accessibility of the NCIEC as well as reach out to diverse communities. Currently the team is refining its scope of work to ensure that the perspectives, needs and input form Deaf consumers of all linguistic backgrounds, including semi-lingual and a-lingual, are included. The team values input and feedback and encourages stakeholders to contact the team at any time with suggestions, concerns, ideas, or feedback. Want more info about this team? click here!
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Medical Interpreting
The work of the medical interpreting team began by interviewing stakeholders to identify issues in the field of medical interpreting and experts in this area. In addition, they reviewed standards of practice in spoken language medical interpreting programs, as well as curricula and literature on spoken and signed language interpreting.
Following this initial survey of the field, their next step was to hold an expert group meeting (think tank) on effective practices in medical interpreting. Based on the information collected in the initial phase described above, the group drafted a document on effective practices in medical interpreting. This draft was sent out for a second level review by Deaf and hearing interpreters.
The next step of the process included another phase of data collection, this time through a survey and focus groups. A protocol for focus groups and a survey form were designed with input from experts in this type of data collection. Eleven focus groups were conducted during the spring and summer of 2007 in eight different states, representing all regions of the United States. As part of the focus group process, participants were asked to complete a survey. Focus groups included hearing and d/Deaf medical interpreters from diverse backgrounds, as well as Deaf and Deafblind consumers. This information, in combination with the literature review and evaluation of current medical interpreting course offerings, provides a framework for identifying effective practices and building curriculum for educating medical interpreters.
Current activities involve collaborating with the NCIEC Mental Health Interpreting workteam to design and deliver educational opportunities in healthcare interpreting. They are investigating innovative ways to provide learning opportunities, using local, regional and national online and on-the-ground resources. In addition, they are maintaining and adding to our website on medical interpreting (www.medicalinterpreting.org). Want more info about this team? click here!
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Mental Healthcare and Substance Abuse Interpreting
The NCIEC is working to identify and validate effective practices in programming and resources for teaching mental healthcare and substance abuse interpreting. To date, we have identified existing resources, current practices, and national experts in this area; conducted an informal review of the literature; held interviews with interpreters, providers, and consumers; and, through a series of national and regional focus groups, developed a draft set of domains and competencies that reflect effective interpreting service provision in this setting. An article in the January 2007 RID VIEWS and emails distributed to the NCIEC regions invited practitioners and mental healthcare providers to review and comment on the draft domains and competencies. The NCIEC work team is currently reviewing the survey results. Next steps during the current fiscal year will be to begin to evaluate existing mental healthcare interpreting programming to uncover examples of effective practice, and explore promising delivery methods for the programming that the NCIEC will develop during Year 3.
Click here to review the draft Domains and Competencies (PDF).
Want more info about this team? click here!
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Mentoring
The NCIEC recognizes that effective mentoring is an essential component of the system needed to close the gap between pre-service education and certification, as well as a means to developing specialized skills and abilities in a variety of interpreting venues. The NCIEC Mentoring Workgroup is currently identifying and fostering mentoring activities by:
- Identifying the current, best and eventually effective practices in mentoring of ASL/English interpreters.
- Identifying resources which effectively enhance mentoring activities.
- Establishing and promoting: 1) standards and 2) programmatic evaluation as critical elements in fostering and maintaining effective mentoring practices.
- Fostering and supporting mentoring initiatives which are effective, sustainable and replicable.
The Workteam has completed surveys of mentors and mentees across the country to gain a better understanding of current mentoring practices and are currently conducting focus groups to further clarify these practices and help us identify successful elements of these activities. We are also collaborating with the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) and support the financing and evaluation of mentoring activities through the RID / NCIEC Mentoring Grant Program.
In addition, we are working to document these findings, identify effective resources used in mentoring and share these findings by publishing a white paper, literature review and / or articles on mentoring in the field of interpreting. Want more info about this team? click here!
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Video Relay Interpreting
Many interpreters do their work via video, whether it be through a video relay service, or video relay interpreting. The NCIEC is working in collaboration with partners and stakeholders to uncover and document standard practice; identify best practices; and outline effective practices of interpreters working over video technology and promote inclusion of these findings in interpreter education. In September, 2007, a Summit, the first-ever Academia-Industry Collaboration: An Essential Partnership for Preparing Qualified Personnel Resources for the Video Relay Services Industry was held to begin the work of identifying current and effective practices as well as education/training needed to support interpreters in mastering requisite competencies to work in these settings. The NCIEC is focused on identifying common needs and issues of the industry as a way to provide input to Interpreter Education regarding essential educational and training needs of interpreters working in video settings. Want more info about this team? click here!
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Want more info about this team?
For more information about any of our workteams, please send an email to nciec@neu.edu. Include the name of the team you're interested in, and a brief explanation of why, and we'll put you in touch with that team's leader.
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