RID Spanish Policy

[Lnanaa]

Announcement in November RID _Views_
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“The official languages of the RID conferences are English and ASL. We have determined that these are the languages that are integral to the philosophy and mission of RID. Therefore, it is our responsibility to provide these services and we are happy to do so. Conversely, the number of persons employing Spanish language interpretation has been historically small to date. Arranging these services causes additional work and is not really in the interpreting/transliterating coordinators’ area of expertise. RID must use its resources wisely.

So, if 25 or more conference registrants requiring Spanish interpretation register and inform us of their need for Spanish language interpreting by May 1, 2005, RID will provide Spanish language interpretation for the 2005 RID conference.”

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A lot of interpreters are protesting this policy of having a mininum Spanish/Hispanic attendees in order to get services.

I encourage you to sign the petition in the link below if you disagree with RID's policy.

http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/SpanishPolicyRID/

Mano a Mano will be discussing this at our December conference call and will have an official reply from Mano a Mano board. We also want to hear from you on this issue, so please send your comments and/or cc your response to the petition to Board@manoamano-unidos.org.


This is a critical issue that RID has raised and we will need to use all our
contact and resources to address the concerns that come with it.


Angela Roth
Mano a Mano President

 

[Reba]

I just want to make sure I understand the facts.

Are you saying that some of the conference attendees neither speak English, nor sign ASL? Does that mean they speak or sign Spanish languages only?

Also, I am curious. I know that each Spanish-speaking country uses a different form of Spanish. I believe each Spanish country also uses a different sign language. Is that correct? If so, then would RID need to provide separate Spanish sign language terps for Cuban signers, Mexican signers, Peruvian signers, etc.?

This is a very interesting topic.