The National Educational Interpreter Supervision and Support Survey
Dear Educational Interpreters,
I invite you to participate in a research study entitled The National Educational Interpreter Supervision and Support Survey. My name is Whitney Weirick and I am currently enrolled in the Special Education- Deaf and Hard of Hearing doctoral program at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
As a former full-time educational interpreter, I understand the importance of the work that you do every day supporting deaf and hard of hearing students. I also understand the challenges and rewards.
The purpose of this research is to document and describe how American Sign Language-English interpreters in k-12 settings are supervised, supported and evaluated in the schools and districts where they work, and to identify potential impacts to them and the students for whom they interpret.
This questionnaire has been designed to collect information on the supervision and evaluation experiences of educational interpreters. Eligible participants currently work as educational interpreters (under any job title) providing sign language interpreting services to kindergarten through 12th grade deaf and hard of hearing students in the United States (or U.S. territory) OR have worked as educational interpreters within the past two (2) years. Interpreter supervisors, or those functioning in a supervisory capacity with educational interpreters (under any job title) are not eligible to participate in this study.
Your participation in this research project is completely voluntary. There are no known risks to participation beyond those encountered in everyday life. You will not benefit directly from participating in this study, and no compensation is offered. Youmay exit the survey at any time. Your responses will remain confidential and anonymous. If you voluntarily choose to give your name and email address to be contacted for future research, this information will not be connected to your survey responses. All information will be stored in encrypted cloud storage from the University of Arizona. Results will be reported only as a collective combined total. No names will appear in any report.
If you agree to participate in this project, please answer the questions on the questionnaire as best you can. It will take at least 20 minutes or more depending on your responses. Your responses will be captured and submitted via Qualtrics at the following link:
https://uarizona.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3VRAZimpHYTaICx
If you have any questions about this project, feel free to contact me at weirick@email.arizona.edu. Information on the rights of human subjects in research is available through the University of Arizona’s Human Subjects Protection Program (HSPP) at https://rgw.arizona.edu/compliance/human-subjects-protection-program or by contacting Mariette Marsh, HSPP Director at (520) 626-7575.
Thank you for your assistance in this important endeavor!
Sincerely,
Whitney R. Weirick
weirick@email.arizona.edu
An Institutional Review Board responsible for human subjects research at The University of Arizona reviewed this research project and found it to be acceptable, according to applicable state and federal regulations and University policies designed to protect the rights and welfare of participants in research.