The Importance of the EIPA in Educational Interpreting

[Lillah Harris] A lot of you may wonder, "What is the EIPA?" and "Why is it an important screening tool for educational interpreters?".

The EIPA was developed by The Boys Town National Hospital in 1991. and, really, it's the only exam of it's kind that has been designed to evaluate interpreters who are specifically working in an educational setting or in a classroom setting with students. It consists of two different portions: the written portion and the performance exam.

The written portion is important because it assesses the different topics that are related to educational interpreting such as the interpreting process, the educational team and the IEP, language and cognitive development in children and, most importantly, the guidelines of professional conduct for educational interpreters specifically.

Next, is the performance portion of the exam, which allows interpreters

to demonstrate their ability to, not only produce a voice-to-sign interpretation, but also a sign-to-voice interpretation. As you can see, there are four different domains and skill sets that are evaluated in the performance portion of the exam.

Now, how is this an important tool for evaluating educational interpreters,

especially for employment? Well, after completing the performance portion of the exam, each interpreter is evaluated by a panel including deaf individuals and they're given a score based on this rating scale from 0 to 5. That determines their level of skill and also helps them to evaluate

what they may need to continue to work on in their professional development. So again, the EIPA is an excellent tool and a great resource for interpreters and for screening interpreters for employment.

Here at LAF SLS we use the EIPA, as well as other certifications, we use the

Professional Code of Conduct for Educational Interpreters, as well as our own internal assessments to be able to screen interpreters to get an idea of what their skill sets are so that we can match them to a student whose needs they can meet.

So, if you would like to have more information about our services and how

we might be able to help you and find solutions for your interpreting needs.

Please visit our website below LAFSLS.com or reach out to us at

(337) 573-0509 and I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you have.