As of late there have been several notifications from RID, many of which that have referenced large-scale systems issues — for example, systemic racism, social unrest, and the pandemic.
Recently, there has been increased public discussion around individual practitioners. RID chooses to withhold comment on these individual cases that have the attention of the membership. RID operates the Ethical Practices System (EPS) which works in conjunction with the governing Ethics Committee. The purpose of the EPS and the EC are to promote standards of excellence within the profession of sign language interpretation, particularly as it relates to ethical conduct.
When there are concerns from community members or colleagues, individuals have every right to utilize the EPS Grievance Process. We hope the membership and our communities understand that for the Board to take an official stance on issues that can be addressed by the EPS is a dangerous trajectory for several reasons, but most importantly, because it is a clear conflict of interest. For the Board, or RID in general, to make sweeping pronouncements against individuals threatens to bias the system against those individuals if indeed grievances are filed. This further threatens the processes and validity of these systems.
For questions or concerns you can reach out to ethics@rid.org.
