In follow up to several inquiries about Missouri Deaf Community's lost confidence in Missouri Interpreters.
Several incidents the past few months have lead us to lose confidence.
Some interpreters may be rotten apples at the bottom of barrel.
This is to clarify not all interpreters are that way, however they need to kick those bad apples out and set them straight on the right track.
Where is the peer pressure to make them to do the right things?
There was an incident where an interpreter told a deaf advocate to sit down during the meeting when that person tried to make a discussion.
There was an incident where some interpreters had heated arguments with some deaf advocates at a recent meeting.
There is an issue about using NIC. (National Interpreting Certification)
They prefer that NIC, Advanced and Masters all go into Level 5 MICS (Missouri).
We preferred that Masters go to Level 5, Advanced go to Level 4 and NIC go to Level 3.
They got into heated arguments... and showed disrespect to us.
As a compromise, we suggested Masters and Advanced go to Level 5. NIC go to Level 4.
Some are not too happy about it. Some even threatened to use lawyer to settle this matter.
There have been some meetings that they excluded deaf consumers.
Is it in violation of Missouri's Sunshine law?
There will be a meeting soon to review it.
We do question the legitimacy of certification of certain interpreters. Some cannot do the job, yet they are "certified". They cannot even read when we use ASL. We do not need to use our voices to make them understand. They lack perception skills so why are they certified?
I thank many people for responding publicily and privately on this issue. I do agree it is important to bring it out in open and review those matters that are dear to our hearts.
We do need interpreters and at the same time, they need to respect us and respect the ethics that are provided to make them professional.
We do wish there is a sound system where grievances can be heard and have due process taken care of those bad apples.
When the system is corrected, we may have new confidence in Missouri Interpreters.
Thanks,
Paul J. Kiel
A tireless Deaf Advocate
October 17, 2007
