More About RID Certification

The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf offers the only national level ASL-English interpreter certification. RID has a certification program for both hearing and Deaf sign language Interpreters. More information about RID certifications, the National Interpreter Certification (NIC) or the Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI), can be found on their website here.

  1. Ethical Practice – agree to adhere to RID’s Code of Professional Conduct
  2. Education –
    • NIC – the education requirement is a Bachelor degree or equivalent
    • CDI – the education requirement is 40 hours of interpreter training and for six months after the release of the CASLI Generalist Performance Exam for Deaf Interpreters, an Associate degree or equivalent. After six months, from the performance exam release date, the education requirement will become a Bachelor degree or equivalent
  3. Assessment – passing scores on both the knowledge and performance exams
  4. Membership – to become certified, one must become a member of RID
  5. Maintenance – once a member is certified, they must participate in ongoing professional development

CASLI’s sole purpose and principle activity is on the administration of the assessments – the knowledge and performance exams – that RID uses for their certification programs. All other certification requirements for certification are handled by RID. The process for testing for the NIC and for the CDI programs are slightly different so please read each process carefully and if you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at testing@casli.org.