Policies for providing interpreter services for faculty/staff

Our office arranges accommodations for Deaf/HH students, staff, faculty, visitors, etc. We also have funding from the President's office to cover staff and faculty requests - most colleges/universities hold the hiring department of the d/hh employee accountable for the cost of accommodations and we do not agree with this philosophy. This approach is unhealthy because it by default establishes a hidden agenda among these departments who have to budget for these accommodations, are not likely to jump at the opportunity to hire Deaf/HH individuals, especially during these tough economic times. It's very discouraging to hear of colleges and universities holding these departments responsible for the costs when the employee actually serves "THE COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY' as a whole!

We also have a different philosophy with 'timelines, no shows, etc.' --- while we understand policies need to be in place to make the best use of our limited resources (physical and fiscal), it's already enough of a barrier to D/HH individuals having to schedule things in advance, explain to the second party why this scheduling approach needs to be considered (and sometimes the second party is still puzzled and believe that interpreters are literally walking around all day ready and available 24/7), submit a request, follow up, etc. We therefore 'politely request 5 days advance notice of any interpreting/captioning requests, but I'll be honest, how often do we know of meetings 5 business days ahead of time (not talking about the monthly staff meeting on the 2nd tuesday of the month) ? If a meeting is scheduled between an employee and supervisor for tomorrow or the next day, we will work to get that covered. We DO communicate the status of requests as often as we can, we do offer alternative times we have interpreters available (i.e. interpreters who have gaps in their schedules between classes) in the event there is flexibility for them to tweak their original meeting day/time, etc. Our info does state we will confirm an interpreter/captioner 48 hours prior - it is rare that we cannot cover something. This communication, we have found, has been more successful with accommodating meeting requests - and sometimes it also results in cost-effective strategies as well as utilizing the limited resources at best.

We are in an urban setting and have more availability of interpreters whether through our pool or agencies we contract with - those in rural areas will likely have a bit more challenge and may want to look into whether VRI is a more feasible option which would give better results in finding coverage with a shorter time frame to secure one. We also have remote captioning at our campus, again this gives much more flexibility and success with finding coverage (we get requests less than 24 hours and can get remote CART within 2 hours).