The shortage is partly due to a lack of public knowledge about the career, said Mary Cashman-Bakken, state specialist for the Minnesota Department of Education for deaf and hard of hearing.

State laws regarding qualified interpreters are also becoming stricter. North Dakota and Minnesota now require interpreters to become certified after completing an interpreter training program.

Certification involves taking written and performance tests to gauge skill.

The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction knew of 14 interpreters who worked for public schools or at the North DakotaSchool for the Deaf in Devils Lake during the 2004-05 school year.

There likely aren’t many more in the state, said Lilia Bakken, communications coordinator at the School for the Deaf.

In Minnesota, the Department of Education listed 215 interpreters for the same time period. The national Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf in Alexandria, Va., reports 396 Minnesota members.

Meanwhile, the North Dakota State Data Center reports an estimated 17,215 North Dakotans ages 15 and older had a severe hearing impairment in 2000. The number is expected to reach 21,495 by 2015.

In Minnesota, an estimated 67,623 people were reported as deaf in 2001, according to the state Department of Human Services.

While not all require interpreters – and expanded data is not available – deaf advocates say there is a shortage of certified interpreters nationally and at the state levels.

Michele Rolewitz, treasurer of the Red River Deaf Club, signed an emphatic “no” when asked if there were enough interpreters to meet the needs of deaf people. There are about 25 members of the local club.

Rolewitz thinks more colleges should offer training for the career. In North Dakota, the lone interpreter training program is at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake.

Minnesota has three interpreter training programs in the Twin Cities.

“I feel it’s very, very important to have qualified, certified interpreters,” Rolewitz signed.

Being qualified goes beyond knowing sign language, which often takes potential interpreters by surprise, Cashman-Bakken said.

“It’s not as easy as it looks.”

That was the case for Solberg. After growing up in Devils Lake and watching interpreters, she thought the career looked interesting.

But interpreter training was completely different from what she expected.

“It’s hard. Many people join thinking it (sign language) is pretty or they want to help,” Solberg said.

However, there’s more to it than that, she said.

Solberg compares interpreting to taking apart a puzzle and putting it back together another way to fit someone’s needs.

“You have to almost develop some kind of fluency or you always seem to struggle,” she said.

American Sign Language is different than merely changing English words to hand gestures. The language is based more on concepts and visual clues, she said, and includes using various facial expressions to match the tone of spoken words.

Some think her job of constantly moving her hands is physically demanding. Solberg said the mental exercise of hearing and adapting to the right signs is more strenuous.

One word may have numerous signs – depending on the spoken meaning – and the right one needs to be used. For example, “run” has different signs, whether it means running water, a runny nose or physically running.

Standing at the front of classrooms, Solberg interprets not only what teachers say, but also what members of the class say.

Whatever she hears, she turns into signs for her two seventh-grade students. She also voices what they sign.

Solberg follows her students throughout the day, whether it’s in class, at lyceums or sitting at the end of the basketball bench during school extracurricular activities.

Moorhead Horizon Middle School interpreter Amy Brands also goes everywhere from math class to swim practice with seventh-grader Hannah Burrell.

Burrell prefers having an interpreter and going to public school, rather than leaving her friends and family to go to a school for the deaf.

“I don’t want to live at the deaf school without my parents,” Burrell signed.

The decision about whether to have a deaf student in the public school system or at a school for the deaf is the parents’ choice, said Brenda Jordan, special services department director for Fargo Public Schools.

As with all special services, student eligibility for an interpreter is determined through an assessment process, she said.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires individuals with disabilities to be given effective access to certain services. This means the government agency or business is charged if interpreter services are needed.

Freelance interpreter Pete Billodeau often encounters business owners who don’t understand that they – not the deaf person – must pay him for his services.

Not charging a deaf person for an interpreter is the same as not charging a person in a wheelchair a toll for using a business’ ramp, he explained.

“People think we just work with the deaf person,” he said, but interpreters also help the hearing person during a conversation.

Instead of working in the classroom, Billodeau and business partner Lori Vigesaa focus on providing services to deaf people in the community. They started Certified Interpreting and Consulting Inc. – based in Fergus Falls, Minn. – in 2001.

From births and doctor’s appointments to courtrooms and funerals, the partners travel across five states to give deaf people a voice.

It’s important for deaf people to use certified interpreters, and not family members, so information is communicated accurately, said Vigesaa, who has deaf parents.

Family members tend to edit information to protect their loved one, she said.

An interpreter gives a deaf person a “straight message,” Billodeau said. Interpreters also do not interject their personal opinions into discussions.

All of which allows the deaf person to make his or her own decisions.

Interpreters will also stand behind the hearing person while they interpret so the deaf person is spoken to, Vigesaa said. “We walk a very fine line of trying to be a service, but at the same time, be as removed from the situation as possible,” she said.

The need to follow a code of ethics and being able to handle different situations with unbiased interpreting can be difficult and turn people away from the career, Vigesaa said.

“There are a lot of reasons few people make it in this field,” she said.

By Teri Finneman
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=118255§ion=News