Photo: KathyDewar (Getty)
If you’re deaf and decided to wait out Hurricane Irma last year because you weren’t really that afraid of pizza and bears, well, it looks as though 2018 is going to be a much less confusing year.
According to WDBO, a House panel in Florida unanimously approved legislation that would require government and police agencies to hire only qualified sign language interpreters from here on out.
That just seems like common sense, but apparently the legislation is necessary after several incidents of bullshit interpreters offering their services to both the government and police last year. First, there was this clown who “translated about 95 percent gibberish, including warnings about pizza and a big bear instead of safety tips” when he was called upon to do his thing during a news conference on Hurricane Irma in Manatee County.
Then there was the case of Derlyn Roberts, a woman who has been arrested at least five times on fraud charges, who just showed up to a news conference and offered her translating services to Tampa police officers who were about to talk about “the Seminole Heights killer.” Once again, it was just a bunch a gibberish, something that would no doubt make Eminem proud but was pretty damn annoying for everybody else.
I just didn’t ask enough questions,” Tampa Police Public Information Officer Steve Hegarty said. “My immediate reaction was I didn’t call for a sign language interpreter but that’s great that we have one here. I let her in. To the untrained eye, and that would include mine, I didn’t see any problem.”
Well, with the new legislation passed this week, let’s hope that there won’t be any more problems for those who suffer from the unfortunate combination of being hearing impaired and living in Florida.
