NTID and BOCES Awarded $2.8 Million To Educate Interpreters

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology, in cooperation with Monroe #1 Board of Cooperative Education Services, was awarded a $2.8 million contract to continue its work increasing the quality and quantity of sign language interpreters in New York's classrooms.

Many states are in the process of requiring that educational interpreters who work in kindergarten through high school be certified. It is expected that New York will implement certification requirements by 2008.

This contract, awarded by the New York State Education Department, is supporting NTID and BOCES to prepare interpreters for NYS Certification, as well as establish online learning opportunities for educational interpreting.

NTID and BOCES are building on the progress they made over the last five years with a $4 million contract from the NYSED. During that time, they assessed more than 900 New York K-12 interpreters' skills and knowledge and provided individual professional development plans and training.

“By increasing the quality of the interpreters, the education standards for the 6,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing students across the state will also improve, which is our ultimate goal," said Marilyn Mitchell, retired NTID associate professor and director of the project, called Preparation of Educational Interpreters. "We are creating degrees for high school graduates or returning students who want to become interpreters, and we're also guiding the working interpreter toward achieving the required degree."

NTID/RIT historically has been a leader in interpreting education, having established the world's first interpreter education program in 1969. NTID/RIT has graduated more interpreters than any other college, and employs an unprecedented 100+ interpreters on its Rochester, N.Y. campus.

NTID is the first and largest technological college in the world for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. One of the eight colleges of RIT, NTID offers educational programs and access and support services to its 1,100 students from around the world who study, live and socialize with 14,400 hearing students.

Web address: www.rit.edu/NTID

Visit www.rit.edu/NTID/newsroom for more NTID news.


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