The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

(1) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)--A public law that provides a clear and comprehensive national mandate for eliminating discrimination against people with disabilities and that provides enforceable standards addressing discrimination against people with disabilities.

(2) BEI--The Board for Evaluation of Interpreters.

(3) BEI Certificate--The certificate awarded by DARS to an applicant who has passed designated written and performance tests; the certificate verifies that the person has skills to perform interpreting and transliterating, both expressively and receptively, and specifies the skill level at which the person can perform.

(4) Certified court interpreter--A person who is a qualified interpreter as defined in the Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 38.31, or the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, §21.003 or who is certified under Subchapter B of this chapter (relating to Board for Evaluation of Interpreters) by DARS to interpret court proceedings for a person who is deaf or hard of hearing.

(5) Certified interpreter--A person who holds a valid certificate awarded by DARS or RID. A RID-certified interpreter does not include a certified interpreter awarded through membership.

(6) Certified medical interpreter--A person who is certified under Subchapter B of this chapter by DARS to interpret in medical settings for persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.

(7) Certified trilingual interpreter--A person certified under Subchapter B of this chapter as meeting the proficiency standards established by DARS to facilitate communication both expressively and receptively in English, sign, and Spanish.

(8) DARS--The Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services.

(9) DHHS--The Office for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, Division for Rehabilitation Services, DARS.

(10) Director--The director of the Office for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services.

(11) Intermediary interpreter--A person who is deaf or hard of hearing, who has passed an interpreter skills evaluation and is certified by DARS or RID, and who is proficient at facilitating communication both linguistically and culturally for a person who is deaf or deafblind.

(12) Interpretation--The process of conveying a message both expressively and receptively from verbal/written language to sign or from sign to verbal/written language.

(13) Interpreter or qualified interpreter--A person who is able to interpret effectively, accurately, and impartially both receptively and expressively, using any necessary specialized vocabulary.

(14) Prerequisite certificate--The valid certificate required by DHHS that makes a person eligible to apply for a specialized certificate issued by DARS or to apply for a BEI advanced performance test.

(15) Provisional certificate--The certificate awarded by DARS to an applicant currently certified in another jurisdiction who seeks a certificate in Texas.

(16) RID--Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc., a national organization of interpreters that provides interpreter certification.

(17) Specialty certificate--A trilingual certificate or court certificate awarded by DARS.

(18) Transliteration--The process of conveying a message either from spoken language into a manually coded language or from manually coded language into a spoken language.

Source Note: The provisions of this §360.105 adopted to be effective April 24, 2013, 38 TexReg 2513; amended to be effective April 6, 2016, 41 TexReg 2503; transferred effective March 1, 2021, as published in the Texas Register February 5, 2021, 46 TexReg 946