(as published in the original candidate bulletin)

In November of 1993, the Massachusetts Association of the Deaf and Massachusetts RID held a joint conference. Each invited their association’s president to attend and speak as keynote speakers; both agreed.

Prior to the meeting, the two presidents, Janet Bailey of RID and Ben Soukup of NAD, had the unscheduled opportunity to talk when they sat in a Boston traffic jam (which is still in place, by the way) for hours. The two presidents shared the keynote presentation during which an agreement was made to find a way in which the NAD and RID could work together toward a common goal.

Shortly after that meeting, the NAD-RID Task Force on the National Interpreter Crisis was established. On January 27, 1994, representatives from both organizations met at the RID national office.

In June of 1996, the Task Force agreed to develop a new joint certification instrument for interpreters/transliterators. The Board of Directors of both organizations approved this initiative. A test development committee was formed and work began in 1997 on the concept for the new test. Members of the Task Force and their respective organizations continued to search for outside funding for this effort, which was expected to require between $750,000 and one million dollars to complete. That effort came to fruition in 2000 when the Arizona Commission for the deaf and Hard of Hearing awarded a sizable contract toward the test development effort and work moved forward at a much more rapid pace.

In the meantime, the Task Force has changed its name to the National Council on Interpreting (NCI). The Council expanded its agenda to numerous other areas related to interpreting and to involve a number of other organizations in this examination of interpreting issues. Other groups have been invited and will be invited to participate in this dialogue. Then the NCI voted to change the name of the new test to the National Interpreter Certification (NIC) Test.