Virginia Law

The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless context clearly indicates otherwise:

"ASL" (American Sign Language) means the visual-manual language predominantly used by members of the deaf community.

"Assessment team" refers to the group of individuals who serve on the panel for Virginia Quality Assurance Screenings.

"Candidate" refers to any person who has applied to take the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening.

"Certified interpreter" refers to an advanced level interpreter who holds valid certification issued by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc., or a cued speech transliterator certified by the National Cued Speech Association.

"Closed screening" means a screening which may be offered to a group who has requested a screening for at least eight candidates within that group. Candidates on the waiting list to be screened may not be notified of closed screenings.

"Code of ethics" means the guidelines for interpreters as established by the national Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc., and the Code of Conduct of the National Cued Speech Association TEC Unit.

"Consumer" refers to any individual: deaf, hard of hearing or hearing who is a recipient of interpreter services.

"Coordinator" refers to the Coordinator of the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening in the Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

"Cued speech" means a phonemically-based system used in conjunction with speech reading, comprised of handshapes representing consonant sounds and positions about the face representing vowel sounds.

"Deaf" refers to any person who has a hearing loss such that with or without amplification is unable to receive information in an auditory fashion and whose primary means of receiving communication is through visual input such as lip reading, sign language, finger spelling, cued speech, reading or writing.

"Department" means the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

"Director" refers to the Director of the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

"Directory" means the listing of qualified interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing as compiled by the department.

"Expressive" means to convey a spoken message into a visual equivalent.

"Hard of hearing" refers to any person who has a hearing loss such that hearing is difficult but the understanding of spoken communication through the ear alone, with or without a hearing aid, is not precluded.

"Hearing" refers to any person who is able to comprehend conversational speech without an assistive device.

"Interpret" means to accurately convey messages without personal interjection between two or more parties using two languages.

"Interpreter" refers to any person who facilitates communication between two or more parties using different languages or different forms of the same language and refers to sign language interpreter/transliterators and oral and cued speech transliterators. When the term is used to specifically identify an interpreter who interprets using ASL, this text will so indicate.

"Interpreting (ASL)" means the specific process of interpreting ASL vocabulary, structure, and grammatical components and does not include oral or cued speech transliterating or forms of manual communication using an English-based structure. The term is used specifically herein when discussing components of the VQAS assessment process.

"Manually-coded English" means any form of manual communication which utilizes specified handshapes to represent English syntax.

"National Cued Speech Association" (NCSA) means the national training, evaluation, and certification unit of cued speech transliterators.

"Oral" means a communication mode which is dependent upon speech reading and spoken communication.

"Panel" refers to the people selected to serve on an assessment team of the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening.

"Panelist" refers to any person who has satisfied the requirements for serving as a member of the assessment team for quality assurance screenings during live panel rating sessions.

"Qualified interpreter" refers to an interpreter who currently holds at least one of the following credentials:

1. Certification from any national organization whose certification process has been recognized by the Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; or

2. A current screening level awarded by the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening Program of the Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; or

3. A screening level or recognized evaluation from any other state when (i) the credentials meet the minimum requirements of Virginia Quality Assurance Screening and (ii) the credentials are valid and current in the state issued.

"Rater" refers to any person who has satisfied the requirements for serving as a member of the assessment team for rating videotapes of candidates who participate in the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening.

"Receptive" means to convey a visual message into a spoken equivalent.

"RID" (Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc.) means the national membership organization of the interpreting profession.

"Screening" means the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening.

"Screening level" means the level of competency awarded to an interpreter who has successfully satisfied the minimum standards established for VQAS.

"Service provider" refers to the person requesting interpreter services who may or may not also be the consumer.

"Transliterate" means to accurately convey messages without personal interjection between two or more parties using different forms of the same language, such as written or spoken English and a manually-coded form of English or cued speech.

"VQAS" means Virginia Quality Assurance Screening, which is designed to assess interpreting and transliterating skills of interpreters who facilitate communication between persons who are deaf or hard of hearing and persons who are hearing, and is administered by the Virginia Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.