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Welcome to the October issue of our newsletter!
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NAIE Updates
Happy Fall everyone from the NAIE Board of Directors!
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Please be sure to check your membership portal today to make sure your membership is up to date as we have some exciting things happening.
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Our State Ambassador Director, Allyson Caruthers was invited to attend The University of Arkansas at Little Rock- Interpreting Education Program's Career Expo in Little Rock Arkansas in September to represent NAIE and educate the students from ASL 1-Seniors in the Program on being an Educational Interpreter along with what resources NAIE has to offer. Thank you Dr. Beaty and Sigma Lambda Kappa(SLK) for inviting us to this event.
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State Ambassador Director, Allyson Caruthers at UA-Little Rock
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Volunteer Spotlight
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The NAIE Board of Directors want to take time to thank each and everyone one of our members. Without YOU NAIE would not be here.
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Do you want to volunteer for NAIE? We have a place for you. If you would like more information or volunteer on the committees below, contact us.
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- Newsletter Committee - Allyson Caruthers, State Ambassador Director
- Professional Development - Karen King, Professional Development Director
- Conference Planning Committee (planning will start soon for our next conference) - Karen King, Professional Development Director
- Scholarship Committee - Kalen Beck, Treasure/Secretary
- DCMP QuickClass - Allyson Caruthers, State Ambassador Director & Karen King, Professional Development Director
- State Ambassador Program - Allyson Caruthers, State Ambassador Director
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Upcoming Events
NAIE/DCMP QuickClass: NAIE/DCMP have collaborated on providing online courses for free CEUs as part of being a member of NAIE. The Members-only Ethics class will be held October 23-November 23. During this class you will have weekly deadlines. The Registration for this class has closed, but be on the lookout for future NAIE/DCMP QuickClass opportunities.
The Professional Development Committee has been busy working behind the scenes this month. Our focus remains on planning the 2023-2024 webinars. Look forward to engaging sessions with presenters Dr. Jenn Dively, Thomas J. Thomas, David Player and Wyatte Hall. The next webinar will be on November 18th...Mark your calendars!
Save the date for Future NAIE Webinars!
November 18, 2023 - Registration will open soon
January 20, 2024
March 16, 2024
May 18, 2024
July 20, 2024
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NAIE Guidelines 2.0 Update
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The NAIE Board of Directors wanted to give everyone an update on the Guidelines 2.0 Taskforce. Dr. Deb Cates made a video(ASL) and the following transcript for members.
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TRANSCRIPT: Hello! I would like to give you some updates about NAIE. Over the past year, we have begun to revise our guidelines. The guidelines task force was established last year and we started to collect information, host meetings, and research areas missing from the guidelines. We announced at our recent Townhall that we were revising our guidelines because they do not say anything about Deaf Interpreters in K-12 settings. During the process of review, other areas that are missing from the guidelines emerged including culturally competent interpreters, the need for the increase and involvement of black and brown interpreters in K-12 settings, the specific role of interpreters in IEP‘s with data collection and more information about what they can provide to IEP teams, as well as some other areas. We noticed several areas that require more investigation. There is a lack of guidance around Deaf Interpreters in K-12 settings. IEP teams make decisions about student services, but often do not consider the possibility of a Deaf Interpreter. They do not understand what a Deaf Interpreter is for or why they would need one. IEP teams need more guidance on the rationale and support for Deaf Interpreters in K-12 settings. Over the past year, people have been reaching out to NAIE requesting more information about Deaf Interpreters, and we have been unable to provide any guidance. Therefore, we decided to suspend the revision of the guidelines for right now. We need to back up and lay some further groundwork. There are two major areas that we need to address. First, we need to have justification for Deaf Interpreters in K-12 settings. We have started drafting a white paper. We recently published a white paper on certification, and now we are doing a similar one related to Deaf Interpreters in K-12. This paper will provide the rationale for Deaf Interpreters in K-12 and will discuss how IEP teams can assess the need for a Deaf Interpreter. We would like that white paper to be released before we begin the process of revising our guidelines related to Deaf Interpreter in K-12 settings. We are in the process of developing a certification system and discussing what is needed for Deaf Interpreters. Right now, there is no formal skills assessment for Deaf Interpreters in K-12 settings; therefore, Deaf Interpreters who want to work in K-12 have no route to certification other than RID. However, NAIE does not believe that RID is sufficient for working in K-12. Interpreters working with children need a different knowledge base and have a different code of ethics. This applies to Deaf Interpreters as well as hearing interpreters. Our guidelines clearly delineate what interpreters must have for their minimum qualifications, but we do not know what the minimum qualifications are for Deaf Interpreters for K-12. That requires more investigation and discussion. That information must be established before we proceed with the revision of our guidelines. Another area that is missing from our guidelines is the importance of culturally competent interpreters. Our research shows that the majority of interpreters working in schools are white, primarily white women, but our students are from diverse backgrounds. Interpreters are often not a good cultural match for the students they work with. How do we support the work of our black and brown interpreter colleagues and grow our pool of diverse interpreters better able to culturally match our diverse students? Also, as white interpreters, how do we unpack our own bias, our own racism, so that we can support those students from diverse cultural backgrounds? This is critical, and it requires more discussion, more work, and more in-depth collaboration. These two areas- the need for Deaf interpreters and the need for culturally competent interpreters- are critical for revising our guidelines. That is why we have decided to put the guidelines revision on hold. We are focusing on the white paper for Deaf Interpreters in K-12 and on our collaboration with Diversity Academy for Interpreters. We are starting with the board, working on unpacking our own racism and addressing how we can increase diverse representation within NAIE holistically. Our organization has not been supportive of black and brown interpreters, nor have we been supportive of Deaf Interpreters. We have marginalized them. We need to break down these divisions within our interpreting community and come together as a whole profession to support black, brown, and Deaf Interpreters. These things need to happen before we can revise our guidelines. NAIE is committed to growing the pool of qualified interpreters who serve Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind students. The Board of Directors feels that this is the appropriate plan of action to do so.
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External Events
The University of Arizona, Tucson is looking for an Assistant/Associate Professor. If you are interested in this please see this job link.
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The CATIE Center has wonderful resources for Interpreters. Their newest FREE course is on dealing with microaggressions. Please see this link for more information.
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Thanks for reading. See you soon!
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NAIE Board and State Ambassadors
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