OBJECTIVES: As a result of attending this plenary, participants will be able to: • Identify key historical elements which impacted the context of RID • Connect the personal context of changing trends impacting the field of interpreting and RID • Evaluate how these changing trends impact perceptions of RID • Engage in deliberate discussion about how to create an organization that is relevant and responsive DESCRIPTION: As history presents a rearview look at what was done before, Wing will offer a personal lens to the development of sign language interpreting by providing a historical framework as a starting point. He will uncover trends that helped shape RID and its current context. In this plenary session, Wing will also suggest the significance of one’s personal journey as a key to creating today’s solutions for a more relevant and responsive RID. How did we become a band of volunteers to full-time practitioners? And at what cost? What forces catapulted the speed of change that we experience in the field? Where do we want to go from here? How do we optimize RID’s purpose in our current context?

1. “Discovering The
Keys To a
Purpose Driven
Future”2017 RID Leadership Conference - SLC
Wing Butler

2. “...I welcome enthusiastically the younger generation of
members in whose hands our future rests. I have not
the slightest doubt they will guide RID with sure and
firm hands. I ask them to look at our past and not be
despondent about our shortcomings, but rather study
them in order to avoid their like again.”
Lou Fant, Silver Threads

3. Who is
hiring
RID?
By focusing on the job-to-be-done, it
becomes possible, for the first time, to
know all its customer’s needs and
determine which are unmet.
Answer the question “Who is hiring
RID?” and for “What job?” brings
visibility to the priorities, innovation,
and fuels greater clarity on our
organization’s purpose. While models
of interpreting may come and go, the
underlying job-to-be done does not.

4. What is
RID
hired to
do?
Deaf people don’t want an interpreter,
they seek an outcome. While we may
try to innovate by improving the
interpreting service (product), the
innovation process is dramatically
improved by instead looking to
interpreters to align with their
consumers goal of the desired outcome
(job-to-be-done). Focusing on the job-
to-be-done, who is hired to do it, and
what the desired outcome is,
illuminates a path and strategic
direction to an organization.

5. Good Bette
r
Best
PRESENT
Deaf Community Hires RID to
provide access. Interpreters hire
RID to help them get better at
giving access.
PAST
Deaf Community hires RID to
recruit and train interpreters.
Interpreters hire RID for
credentials and training.
FUTURE
Deaf Community hires
interpreters to achieve an
outcome. Interpreters hire RID to
build tools that will support them
in satisfying their customer’s
expectations.
Role Alignment

6. The
Keyhole
Dilemm
a

7. “What we envisioned was an upgrading of
interpreters and recruiting of new
interpreters, mostly from the ranks of good
signers who showed potential.” – Lou Fant,
Silver Threads
Communal Proximity –
Professionals vs Volunteers –
National Registry of
Professional Interpreters
and Transliterators for the
1964
Ball State, Muncie
IN
Deaf Community and Interpreters are one in the same by
communal proximity. Therefore the Community hires RID to recruit
and train
Interpreters for hire.

8. 1980
“It was now increasingly possible in the
eyes of society at large for individuals
to earn a living by interpreting or
transliterating without having been
involved with or vetted by the
Community” – Dennis Cokely,
Shifting Positionality
Legislation creates greater demand for
educational interpreters, invites
economic support for Deaf Students,
and begins the decline of residential
schools.
Legislation
Certification1972
Deaf Community hires Interpreters
Interpreters hire RID to train and certify
Deaf Community hires RID to advocate
Interpreters hire RID to train and certify
Interpreting community defines itself as
professionals

9. 2005
1993
Deaf Community hires Agencies and VRS providers to
achieve outcomes.
Interpreters hire RID to advocate for wellbeing and
strengthen professionalism
Deaf Community hires RID to..
Interpreters hire RID to…
Video Relay Services puts interpreter
demand into hyper-drive and introduces
virtual presence era.
Technology
In response to demand from 3 major
influencers (technology, legislation,
certification) membership increases
from 6,000 in 1997 to over 15,000 in
2000.
Membership

10. 2017
With the influx of new member
interpreters, assessments and
certification review rose to the top. This
work seemed to cause a juxtaposition
of roles, who is hiring who, to do what.
For some in the Deaf and interpreting
communities, the job-to-be-done is no
longer aligned with what they hired RID
to do.
Assessments
Deaf Community hires RID to raise the quality of
services from its members. Interpreters hire specialty
conferences like StreetLeverage, DIC, Educational
interpreter organizations, and specialized groups to
train them
What are you hiring
RID to do?
Does that align with
our Deaf
Community?

11. Fant, L. (1990). Silver Threads. Silver Spring, MD: RID Publications
Ball, C. (2013). Legacies and Legends. Edmonton, Canada: Interpreting Consolidated
Cokely, D. (2009) Shifting Positionality: A critical Examination of the Turning Point in the Relationship of
Interpreters and the Deaf Community. ResearchGate.net
Anna Witter-Merrithew Brandon Arthur Joseph Featherstone
Joseph Kane Ku Mei Kern Phelan and Siu Mei Butler
Jean Miller GoReact
Notable Resources

12. Wing Butler
Wing@goreact.com

13. What are you personally hiring RID to do?
What is the Deaf Community hiring you
personally to do?
How does this influence RID’s Purpose?
How does that change RID’s strategic
objectives?
DELIBERATE PRACTICE