Can't be a CDI?

[deafbajagal]

A friend of my runs an Interpreter Training program at a college. There is an unofficial rule that deaf persons who grew up oral (not signing) but later learned ASL should NOT become a Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI). They feel that a CDI should be a deaf person who is a native signer.

Since I spent most of my growing-up years as an oral deaf person, they were saying that I shouldn't be a CDI. (They don't know that I used to be one, but didn't want to work as a CDI, so my certification expired a few years ago when I didn't keep up the hours to maintain it).

My thoughts: I agree in a way that the CDI really needs to be sure to know ASL in order to do his/her job well. However, in many cases, a CDI is used because the client does NOT know ASL because the client has MLS (minimal language skills). Since I grew up mostly oral, I feel that I do this part well because I personally have experienced what it is like not to be understood by others. A deaf person who grew up in all signing environment at home, school, and community is unlikely to have the experience of not being understood by others or trying to understand others.

What do you think? Should formal oral deaf persons who becomes fluent in ASL later in life become CDIs if they want to?

 

[jillio]

Good question. We use CDIs in the mental health field for cases when the terp is not sufficent for determining the cultural influence on communication. Our CDIs do more than interpret from one language to another; they actually interpret context from a cultural perspective. That is very important when doing an assessment because it prevents bias and misdiagnosis when answers to questions are interpreted from a hearing perspective.

If a formally oral deaf person is skilled in interpreting from a contextual perspective, then I don't see why they can't function as a CDI. By the same token, all the CDIs I have ever had contact with are native signers.

You've given me something to think about.

 

[Etoile]

Because a CDI's job is different from a regular terp's, I don't think linguistic competence should be the only measure. If a non-native signer wants to try to become a CDI, they should. Only they (and the test raters) know if they are capable or not. I wouldn't deny any deaf person the opportunity to try to become a CDI if they feel they have the skills for it.