Sign Language Consumer Protection Study

Consumer protection study for sign language users

Colorado requires a study of consumer protections for Deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind people who use sign language interpreters. The law creates a division for these communities within the Department of Human Services. The department’s executive director must hire an outside researcher by July 1, 2027, in consultation with the division. The division must help coordinate the study. Interviews must include interpreters, consumers, and language service companies. Interviews must be fully accessible, with access to certified American Sign Language interpreters and interviewers skilled in Deaf culture and communication. Where possible, participants must reflect different ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds, incomes, and rural and urban communities. They must also include culturally Deaf and late-deafened people, with experience using certified and uncertified interpreters in person and by video. The study must gather numerical data and personal accounts about whether unregulated interpretation threatens health, safety, or welfare. It must examine changes over the past decade and gather information for the state’s review of professional regulation. Comparisons must cover at least three states: one with long-standing regulation, one with recent regulation, and one with recently changed regulation. Findings, conclusions, and any recommendations are due to the executive director and division by July 1, 2028. The study requirements end September 1, 2029. The study itself creates no new consumer protections.