RID has created a Webinar Series that is designed to raise awareness and start a vital conversation exploring and understanding diversity, power, privilege, oppression, as well as foster inclusion. The series will aim to explore causes at the roots of our perception and attitudes. how we develop these attitudes about power, privilege, and oppression individually and collectively, and how our attitudes affect our interpersonal interactions. The series will include five webinars that will be presented over the course of several months. In order to receive CEUs, all webinars must be completed.

This presentation discusses through a historical lens: the culture, education, and sociolinguistics of Black Deaf people. The era of social marginalization contributed to the development of Black ASL and at least in part, intertwined with the formation of the National Black Deaf Advocates, Inc. (NBDA). This session also discusses experiences of the use of sign language interpreters by Black Deaf people and how the cultural intersections of the greater Deaf community and hearing African-American community impact upon Black Deaf people’s identities.

1) Participants will define the concepts of culture and sub-culture within the Deaf community and its impact upon Black Deaf Community.
2) Participants will analyze chosen cultural identities by Black Deaf people based on the cultural intersections of Deaf community and hearing African-American community.
3) From a sociolinguistic standpoint, participants will become familiar with the disparity of deaf educational segregation system during the segregation era contributed to the development of Black American Sign Language through lecture.
4) Participants will become familiar with the formation of a national black deaf organization that advocates for civil rights and equal access to education, employment, and social services on behalf of the Black Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the United States through lecture.
5) Participants will become familiar with a diverse of Black Deaf consumers that require effective communication in the context of cultural diversity and/or socio-economic factors through lecture. 

This module provides a general overview of the RID Certification Maintenance Program (CMP). Subsequent modules in this series will provide specific and detailed information about the various components of the CMP & the processes by which RID certified and associate members maintain certification.

This module provides specific information including types of coursework, timelines, and credit amounts related to the academic coursework that can be converted to CEU credits.

This module provides information regarding learning activities in which certified and associate members wish to participate but which are not already approved for CEUs. This module will describe the types of learning activities that qualify, timelines and processes for application to an approved RID CMP Sponsor, and how to demonstrate successful completion of the activity as well as some common misunderstandings about the PINRA category of credits.

This module will provide information regarding educational activities either developed and provided by Facilitators/Instructors, Hosts or RID-Approved Sponsors. CMP-approved Sponsors may either provide or support a learning activity for CEU credits including the types of activities that qualify, requirements for instructors, documentation required, timelines, and evaluation processes.

This module provides information regarding learning activities that are developed by members and describes the sponsor’s role in reviewing, approving, and monitoring the Independent Study (IS) project.

This module provides information specifically for auditors of CMP sponsors outlining the expectations for auditors, monitoring sponsors to ensure successful compliance with CMP requirements, and audit procedures & timelines.

The 2015 Community Forum, “Igenda or WEgenda: How do we define “we”? What is the place of the “I” in the interaction?” will address a range of issues such as: generational differences, the implications of the Deafhood movement for interpreters, the power of our words and exploring the difference between having access and having to ask for access, our interface with the emerging field of CDI’s and future trends in the Deaf and interpreting communities. Moderators, Carol-Lee Aquiline and Lynnette Taylor will be joined by presenters Wing Butler, Patrick Graybill and Marvin Miller to frame the evening’s discussion. Dennis Cokely, Sarah Hafer and Erica West Oyedele will join in a panel discussion that follows. Participants will have the opportunity to come together in small group discussions to respond to the issues raised and then share in an open forum. Our goal is to identify a series of doable actions that can be taken individually and collectively. We close the evening by celebrating our cultural heritage with poetry from Patrick Graybill and David Rivera.

This webinar will be a presentation of Christopher Tester's MA Thesis, titled: How American Sign Language-English Interpreters Who Can Hear Determine Need for a Deaf Interpreter for Court Proceedings. This study investigated how and when hearing interpreters in the United States decide there is a need for a Deaf interpreter for court proceedings. Previous publications have strongly suggested that it is best practice to work with a Deaf interpreter for specific situations (NCIEC, 2007). The author utilized two frameworks: Brennan & Brown's (1997) Equality before the Law, and Mathers' (2009) Deaf interpreters in court: an accommodation that is more than reasonable to design a study that will bring to light the criteria used by hearing ASL-English interpreters to determine when a Deaf interpreter should be utilized. This research also explored the hearing interpreter's view of the Deaf interpreter and allowed for discussion of experience of working as the hearing member of a Deaf-hearing team in the courtroom.