Student and instructor will meet with Board for Evaluation of Interpreters' representative about any criminal conviction incurred.

When applying for Board for Evaluation of Interpreters exams, applicants must inform BEI representatives of any criminal conviction at the time of application.

According to the Board for Evaluation of Interpreters study guide, these are the essential functions required for this major:

2.1.1 ESSENTIAL PHYSICAL ABILITIES The essential physical abilities of a non-intermediary interpreter are described below.

• Hearing—the ability to hear, identify, and understand the speech of another person without relying on visual assistance
• Speech—the ability to speak clearly so that the speech is understandable to a listener
• Vision—the ability to see details of another person’s hand shapes, hand movements, and facial expressions from a distance of three to six feet
• Facial expression—the ability to control the muscles of the face in order to manipulate the eyebrows, cheeks, mouth, and nose
• Manual dexterity—the ability to quickly make coordinated movements of one hand, a hand together with its arm, two hands, or two hands together with arms
• Finger dexterity—the ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands Wrist-finger speed—the ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists Limb movement—the ability to move the arms to place the hands slightly above the head, and to extend the arms away from the front of the body and to the sides of the body
• Limb movement speed—the ability to quickly move the arms
• Dual-limb coordination—the ability to coordinate movements of both arms while sitting or standing Head—the ability to control the head in order to nod and to turn it from side to side
• Physical stamina—the ability to endure moderate physical exertion without getting winded or out-of-breath for at least 30 minutes

2.1.2 ESSENTIAL COGNITIVE ABILITIES The essential cognitive abilities of a non-intermediary, nondeaf interpreter are described below.

• Critical thinking—the ability to use logic and analysis to assess communication in order to make adjustments in approaches to interpretation
• Self-monitoring—the ability to monitor and assess the interpretation during and after a task
• Selective attention—the ability to concentrate and be undistracted while performing a task, and to sustain that attention over a period of time
• Auditory attention—the ability to focus on a single source of auditory information in the presence of other distracting sounds
• Visual attention—the ability to focus on a single source of visual information in the presence of other distracting movements in the surrounding area
• Mental stamina—the ability to sustain a significant amount of mental processing without fatigue or breakdown for at least 30 minutes
• Working memory—the ability to remember information such as concepts, words, and numbers for a brief time while interpreting
• Information ordering—the ability to track and arrange information in a certain order
• Pattern inference—the ability to quickly make sense of information even when parts of that information may appear to be missing
• Time sharing—the ability to efficiently shift between two or more activities or tasks, and between two or more sources of information
• Problem sensitivity—the ability to recognize when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong
• Fluency of ideas—the ability to generate a number of ideas about a given topic (This concerns the number of ideas produced and not the quality, correctness, or creativity of the ideas)
• Breadth of knowledge—an acquaintance or understanding, at the introductory level or higher, of a broad variety of topics and fields of interest

Source: https://www.hhs.texas.gov/sites/default/files/documents/laws-regulations/handbooks/bei_study_guide.pdf

To take the Board for Evaluation of Interpreters and/or National Interpreter Certification exams, students must be 18 years old and older.

Professional and appropriate clothing is required on assignments on- and off-campus.