Re-Orient
A Time to Jonathan Webb PhD, CI and CT, NIC Advanced President For me, questions hold far more power than that of statements. Statements are limiting in and of themselves. They may be very important, but they offer a sort of finality. Questions, on the other hand, lead us to explore and embark on new forms of discovery. And make no mistake- the experience of the last two years has led me to develop lots of statements and I’ll share some of those. However, I have far more questions and we’ve even had the opportunity to explore some of those very questions over the last six weeks having gone through the sociopolitical upheaval our association has just experienced.
We are RID. Our membership continues to struggle with not understanding that RID is simply a reflection of who we are. RID’s success is ultimately our collective success. Conversely, RID’s struggles and challenges belong to and come from us as well. There is little separation. RID did not appear out of the ether. RID was created, organized, and has been maintained by us- practitioners and stakeholders in the profession of sign language interpreting. It’s time we come to terms with this. The irony is striking here, because we proudly proclaim that RID is member-driven. And when we do well we seem to have no problem taking pride in that. We also need to own the challenges and obstacles we experience too without projecting them onto something when that does nothing to actually address the issues. I’ve shared this message regularly as I’ve talked with us, but the time is now that we understand when we ask why RID? We are ultimately asking about our own efficacy and viability as sign language interpreters.
Who are we? We are practice professionals. There’s a lot to unpack with that designation, but one thing I’d like to highlight is our social responsibility as practice professionals within this field. It’s hard to argue that we haven’t discussed that we live in a society full of systems born from -isms meant to marginalize and disenfranchise certain peoples. As interpreters, we live in-between these two experiences- the systems that create the marginalization and the people who suffer from it. We must use this understanding to frame how we go about our practice. We cannot be passive participants, bystanders in the marginalization of Deaf people. One of the things I believe might help us better understand our duty and obligation as practice professionals in this field is our mission statement. Via our mission statement, which has evolved over the years, we clearly see that we work to facilitate communication between those who use signed and spoken languages and that we do such with a degree of excellence, in adherence to ethical and moral behavior, all while committing ourselves to continued professional growth.
Where are we going? We are not completely unified within RID. We seem to have a strong group of individuals invested in and dedicated to RID’s and our collective growth and transformation. We sadly have another smaller group of individuals who seem invested in and dedicated to political game playing and theatrics. When you think back to ancient myths of two-headed beasts we see some of the metaphors around a house divided. It’s time for us to come together. For a year and a half we have been deep in the discussion of transitioning RID into a professional certification organization. These discussions have happened in a variety of ways both large and small. Members have made their wishes known- we need and want to transition into a professional certification organization. This member, Deaf community, and stakeholder sentiment has been verified by a 3rd party consultant. Our conference opening plenary, offered by Belinda McCleese, addressed change. Belinda talked about transitional change as being a process of relinquishing one thing in order to have something different. That’s exactly what we are www.rid.org
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