Section 216-RICR-40-05-21.2 - DefinitionsA. 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).216 R.I. Code R. § 216-RICR-40-05-21.2