Rhode Island Code of Regulations › Title 216 - Department of health › Chapter 40 - Professional licensing and facility regulation › Subchapter 05 - Professional Licensing › Part 21 - Interpreters for the Deaf (216-RICR-40-05-21) › Section 216-RICR-40-05-21.2 - Definitions

Current through June 14, 2024
A. Wherever used in this Part, the following
				  terms shall be construed as follows:
1. "Act"
				  means R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 5-71, entitled, "Licensure of Interpreters for the
				  Deaf Act."
2. "American Sign
				  Language" or "ASL" means the visual/gestural language used by deaf/Deaf people
				  in the United States and Canada, with semantic, syntactic, morphological, and
				  phonological rules which are distinct from English.
3. "Board" means the state Board of Examiners
				  for Interpreters for the Deaf established pursuant to the provisions of R.I.
				  Gen. Laws §
											5-71-4 of the Act.
4. "Certified" means
				  any individual who is a certified member of the Registry of Interpreters for
				  the Deaf, Inc., (RID), its successor agency, or other agencies as approved by
				  the Department in consultation with the Board.
5. "Certified deaf interpreter", "Deaf
				  interpreter" or "Deaf intermediary interpreter" means any individual who is
				  deaf or hard of hearing and who is a certified member of the Registry of
				  Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. (RID) or its successor agency approved by the
				  Department in consultation with the Board.
6. "Consumer" means an individual who is
				  deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing or an individual with a disability who does
				  not share a common means of communication. This may include, without
				  limitation, American Sign Language (ASL), visual, gestural, auditory, and
				  tactile modes of communication.
7.
				  "Deaf-blind interpreting" means linguistic information through sign language
				  acquired by individuals who are deaf-blind through their preferred methods
				  depending on the causes of their combined vision and hearing loss, their
				  background, and their education, such as close-vision interpreting and tactile
				  interpreting, while spoken language is conveyed into sign language (e.g. ASL),
				  and sign language (ASL) is conveyed into spoken language.
8. "Director" means the Director of the Rhode
				  Island Department of Health.
9.
				  "Department" means the Rhode Island Department of Health.
10. "Educational interpreter" means an
				  individual who has specialized certification (elementary and secondary
				  education for grades kindergarten (K) through twelve (12)) and is a certified
				  member of RID or its successor agency approved by the Department in
				  consultation with the Board in the provision of sign language interpreting to
				  students who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or deaf-blind in grades preschool
				  through twelve (12).
11.
				  "Emergency" means an urgent circumstance that demands immediate action in order
				  for a consumer to avoid imminent harm or loss.
12. "Interpreter" means any person who
				  engages in the practice of interpreting for the deaf as defined in §
											21.2   of this Part.
13. "Interpreting" means conveying spoken
				  English into American Sign Language (ASL) or conveying American Sign Language
				  into English, or interpreting English to and/or from a visual gestural
				  system.
14. "Intermediary
				  interpreting" means interpreting services rendered by a deaf person to
				  facilitate communication between another deaf person and a licensed
				  interpreter.
15. "Manually coded
				  English" or "MCE" or "Other manually coded sign systems" means any form of
				  visual/gestural communication used by deaf or hard-of-hearing persons in the
				  United States and Canada, with semantic and syntactic rules based either partly
				  or entirely upon English. Such systems, include, but are not limited to, CASE
				  (Conceptually Accurate Signed English), Pidgin Signed English (PSE), Signing
				  Essential English, Signing Exact English, Sign Supported English, Signed
				  English, and the Rochester method.
16. "Person" means any individual, firm,
				  corporation, partnership, organization or body politic.
17. "Screened deaf interpreter" means any
				  person who is deaf or hard of hearing and who presents proof of an active state
				  screening or its equivalent and presents proof of successful completion of an
				  examination as approved by the Department in consultation with the
				  Board.
18. "Screened interpreter"
				  means any person who presents proof of an active state screening or its
				  equivalent and presents proof of successful completion of an examination as
				  approved by the Department in consultation with the Board.
19. "Transliterating" means conveying spoken
				  English into manually coded English, or conveying manually coded English into
				  spoken English (sign-to-voice), or conveying English on the lips so that it is
				  accessible to speech reading (oral transliterating, or any auditory
				  communication as a visual form in English such as cued speech).