What is a certification examination and how is it different from other types of examinations?
Interpreter qualifications for different settings may be based on Q & A telephone interviews, screening exams, written testing only or oral testing only, or on full certification testing. Certification testing is generally mandated by legislation for professional standards. From 1979 (when the Court Interpreters Act, 28 USC 1827, became law) to 2002, the federal courts developed certification testing in Spanish, Haitian Creole and Navajo. Federal certification is considered a high standard of interpreter testing. Currently there is no federal certification available in languages other than these three. Professional associations such as the American Translators Association and the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators have developed certification tests of their own, which are generally well respected.
