Educational Interpreter Services for Hearing-Impaired Students: Provider and Consumer Disagreements

Thirteen supervisors of educational programs for hearing-impaired students completed an assessment designed to determine the need for educational interpreters in a midwestern state and how well it was being met. The results suggested that the trend toward the integration of hearing-impaired students in to regular programs continues and that, with the higher incidence of integration, there is an associated unmet need for educational interpreters. Nine supervisors, 24 teachers, 27 interpreters and 18 hearing-impaired college students rated the characteristics and skills of interpreters which they perceived to be most important. Significant differences existed between and within groups in the characteristics and skills perceived important to educational interpreting (p\u3c .05). Major differences existed between the skills and characteristics cited as most important by hearing-impaired persons and those cited by teachers and interpreters