MI Interpreter Bill Signed By Governor!
I just got an e-mail press release from DODHH – Division on Deafness and Hard of Hearing. The governor of Michigan has signed the interpreter bill! See below for the press release.
Agency: Labor & Economic Growth
June 29, 2007 – LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm signed legislation that equires the use of qualified sign language interpreters who possess state or national certification in all accommodations required under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), making the scope of Michigan’s law comparable to the federal law. Approximately 1.4 million Michigan citizens are deaf or hard of hearing.
“We’re ending the confusion, frustration, and errors that are so often experienced by the deaf and hard of hearing in important life situations due to misinterpreted information,” said Granholm. “Equal access to accurate communication is a basic civil right of us all.”
Under Public Act 23 (Senate Bill 25) and Public Act 24 (House Bill 4208) employers, state and local governments, and businesses providing a variety of services to the public are now obligated to provide for effective communication. Such entities include public and private schools and colleges; doctors’ offices, hospitals and pharmacies; banks, hotels, restaurants and theatres. Reasonable notice is required if a qualified interpreter is needed.
PAs 23 and 24 amend the Deaf Persons’ Interpreters Act (PA 204 of 1982) which limited the application of interpreter standards to court and administrative hearings and was not sufficiently clear on the standards. PA 23 now defines a “qualified” interpreter as a person who is certified through the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf or by the Division of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DODHH) in the Department of Labor & Economic Growth (DLEG).
“I’m pleased to sign legislation that sets universal standards of excellence for qualified interpreters and protects our citizens from unqualified practitioners,” Granholm said.
If an entity willfully fails to provide an interpreter when one is required or an unqualified interpreter is provided, the business or entity may be subject to a civil fine. Individuals who misrepresent themselves as qualified interpreters would be guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by imprisonment and/or a fine.
Individuals who violate the law are subject to rejection of their application for certification, or revocation, suspension, or limitation of certification.
PA 24 grants rulemaking authority to the DODHH, including establishing rules on minimum credential requirements and levels, minimum standards of practice, and continuing education. Rules must be coordinated with the Michigan Department of Education and the Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education for the purpose of increasing interpreter qualifications, improving educational services to deaf and hard of hearing students, increasing the supply of qualified interpreters by promoting interpreting as a profession, and increasing the number of training programs.
Michigan becomes one of only a few states to recognize the interpreting field for the skills and credentials it requires and make qualified interpreters mandatory in a broader range of situations. These factors serve the state well in attracting qualified interpreters to Michigan as well as training more people who want to become interpreters.
“This brings significant job growth opportunities to the state,” said Keith W. Cooley, director of DLEG. “We’re already in short supply of qualified interpreters and the demand for services is growing.”
According to a 2006 study “Supply & Demand for Interpreters for the Deaf in Michigan” conducted by Public Policy Associates, Inc., in consultation with DODHH and the Michigan Department of Education (available online at www.mcdc-dodhh.org) the demand for interpreters will grow over the next 25 years and it will take 15-20 years to close the gap between the supply and demand of interpreters.
Factors contributing to the demand include: the aging of the deaf and hard of hearing population; the growing need for interpreters in health care settings; expansion of video relay service (VRS) and other new communication services for the deaf and hard of hearing; and the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act, the ADA, and the Educational Interpreters Proficiency Assessment guidelines.
To meet the demand, interpreters in the future will need to be better educated, possess more specialized skills, and will be required to meet more stringent certification criteria. The study found that 30 percent of interpreters in Michigan are not certified at all.
Currently there are approximately 531 state or nationally certified interpreters in Michigan; 450 state certified interpreters are eligible to renew certification this year. Interpreters who possess Michigan Quality Assurance Certification at levels, I, II, or III are considered qualified until that certification status expires. Such a certificate may be renewed annually until it expires and retesting is required.
Interpreters who currently hold national certification recognized by DODHH must be issued a state certification upon filing a completed application and paying applicable fees.
Senate Bill 25 and identical bill, House Bill 4208 were sponsored by Senator John Gleason (District 27, Genesee County) and Representative Dudley Spade (District 57, Lenawee County) respectively.
Contact: Janet Jurus, State Interpreter, DODHH: ph # deleted Voice/TTY; or ph # deleted Voice/TTY/F toll free.
Visit the DODHH website at www.mcdc-dodhh.org. To view PA 23 and PA 24 go to www.michiganlegislature.org.
12 Comments
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Katherine said,
June 29, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I commend the Governor for a well done job! Time to weed out those interpreters who do not belong in the field and to hold agencies and interpreters responsible for putting $$ above the needs of deaf and hearing consumers of the interpreting service. Long overdue, not only for the state of Michigan but every other state that needs to follow!!!
gally82nyu84 said,
June 30, 2007 at 12:51 am
Now comes the hard part, we the members of the deaf community must do our part. We must ask to see certification and be willing to report those that are not following the law. Encourage others to speak up and demand quality services. We have too many bogus low quality agencies in the tri-county area.
Christine said,
June 30, 2007 at 7:49 am
Hi, I just found you through a Google blog alert on Gov Granholm. I didn’t realize that interpreters weren’t already required in places like public schools and hospitals, or that we didn’t have standardized requirements regarding skills, certifications, etc. This is a real eye-opener for me. This is the kind of thing that I never hear about (no bad pun intended) and I’m always involved in some kind of civil rights discussion/blogging/whatever.
I wrote about it a little over on BFM.
Nice work here.
IamMine said,
June 30, 2007 at 7:59 am
That’s GREAT news!!!
I think we ought to send a thank you letter to Governor Jennifer Granholm! I was thinking about sending her a video in ASL thanking her for doing this for the deaf/hoh community.
I’d have to subtitle in English, of course…guess it’s a good time to bug SeekGeo for tutoring.
Anyway, I was looking at the mcdc-dodhh.org site provided in the article and found Chris Hunter’s video clip explaining what HB4208 (interpreter bill) was and its status at the time, the process it takes before arriving to the Governor to be signed into law. You can find his video clip on “HB 4308 Captioned” (another video is provided for voice), under the DODHH Director Hunter Updates on House Bill No. 4208.
Now, what caught my attention is that it would take DODHH about a year to write the rules to follow the new law and another year to implement that law.
Also, this new law that was just signed is to be effective in about 90 days, but it actually won’t be fully implemented in about two years.
Did I understand that correctly?
While it’s great to have this long overdue law, it doesn’t necessarily get rid of the current problems we have – the outrage costs agencies charge that is not illegal but unethical. For example, there are agencies that charge the same rate for ALL interpreters, regardless of their skills (it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out they charge at the highest ‘skill level’ for profit). But it certainly will improve the demand of quality in interpreters!
I’m wondering why they consider QA 1 and II “quality” – we all know how they are! Yikes – I don’t want them at my doctors’ appointment or concerts! No thankie! Nor should they be in schools for students. We all have those stories, don’t we?
We also got to make it more ‘friendly’ for businesses or organizations to hire qualified and certified interpreters to meet the needs of deaf/hoh at the highest standard without hassles.
Right now it falls on the shoulders of the named providers to pay for the interpreter bills and unfortunately this does hurt a deaf/hoh person chance of getting a job or promotion on the job with the raising cost of an interpreter.
We need to do something about that as well. I’m not sure how, though. Michigan is in such a bad debt that we can’t ask for funding to cover for the interpreters.
A Deaf Pundit said,
June 30, 2007 at 10:11 am
Thanks Christine.
IamMine, the deaf community can ask for a town hall meeting with that agency and share their concerns. Document everything possible, and basically follow the money. As usual, e-mail me for advice on how to do it exactly.
billcreswell said,
June 30, 2007 at 10:33 am
said Granholm. “Equal access to accurate communication is a basic civil right of us all.”
Did she see the video?
A Deaf Pundit said,
June 30, 2007 at 11:00 am
That would be cool if she did. *grins*
Seriously though, she was just using the terms that people use in politics.
IamMine said,
June 30, 2007 at 11:24 am
I thought the same thing as Bill when I first saw that but knew it was politics talk.
Perhaps I’ll include that video with my thank you letter in ASL?
A Deaf Pundit said,
June 30, 2007 at 11:25 am
Go for it.
Christine said,
June 30, 2007 at 11:46 am
If I may make a suggestion … the Governor and many legislators make michiganliberal.com a daily read. You may want to start cross-posting stuff there. I read ML every day and I’ve never noticed anything about this issue. (maybe I’ve just missed it?)
You are also welcome to cross-post at bloggingformichigan.com, which uses the same software as michigan liberal. In other words you can register as a user and then post diaries which other users can recommend, or the site owners can front-page.
We’d love to welcome you at BFM. We launched a couple of months ago but just switched over to the new software yesterday. But if you really want to get your cause in front of Lansing (and the mainstream media), use Michigan Liberal. They have a huge audience, which definitely includes the folks you want to reach.
But wait until they come back from vacation, so your diary will be new when they get back to work. Ironically, that’s when they read blogs.
A Deaf Pundit said,
June 30, 2007 at 2:22 pm
That would be great, Christine! Thank you!
A Deaf Pundit said,
June 30, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Oh by the way, I’m not surprised you didn’t see it on michiganliberal.com. Very few outside of the deaf community and its allies know about what’s going on, unfortunately.