Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Texas guidelines for interpreters for the deaf

This 59-step guide on how to provide interpretaton for deaf defendants in the Texas court system came across on a listserv I observe.

The full diagram viewable at this .pdf file. Visual description of the full chart at the link is difficult without spending an hour or two writing out the complexity of this huge flow chart. The image below shows only about a dozen steps, from a green circle that reads "1. Contact between person and court." with arrow to a yellow shape that reads "2. Is person arrested and taken to judge acting as a magistrate?" If the answer is yes, an arrow leads to number three, if no, an arrow leads to number 12. In several places along the process, the question is whether or not the judge learns the person is deaf, hard of hearing, or doesn't speak English. An answer of "no" at these points presumes the person can hear or understand English.

2 comments:

bint alshamsa said...

Uh, you're joking right? This is impossibly difficult for anyone to memorize and can you imagine how much time it must take to refer to this chart everytime you have to take a step?

Kay Olson said...

Apparently, it's no joke. Seems impossible to me, though perhaps it's better than no procedure at all.