structural:expansion, quality:corruption, stylistic:tone
History

In 1920 the Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act was passed to provide funds to rehabilitation agencies for people with disabilities who were not Veterans of war. In 1954 the Vocational Rehabilitation Act Amendment passed, including using interpreters but without funding to train people to become interpreters. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare enlisted a Deaf man, Boyce Williams, to research the programs for Deaf people around the country in 1955. The report he gave instituted training for many people in ways to communicate and interact with Deaf individuals, specifically related to Vocational Rehabilitation. It was in the 1960s when the United States Government had begun to pass legislation that improved the lives of people with disabilities and encompassed the rights for post-secondary education for persons who were Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind, as well as a transition of friends and family interpreting to the idea for professional interpreters. In 1965 the advisory committee headed up by Dr. Homer D. Babbidge, Jr. presented the "Babbidge Report" or the "Education of the Deaf: A Report to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare by his Advisory Committee on the Education of the Deaf". The lack of educational access for the Deaf was highlighted. Simultaneously, the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration under HEW provided grant 460-T-64 in the amount of $17,572 to William J. McClure at Ball State Teachers College in Muncie, IN, to produce a series of workshops to produce "Guidelines for Interpreting for the Deaf". It was at the first workshop in 1964 that Dr. Edgar Lowell and Dr. Ralph Hoag discussed establishing a registry of interpreters for the deaf. On the evening of June 16, 1964, participants from the workshop met, and a formal meeting led by Dr. Edgar Lowell produced the first board of the "National Registry of Professional Interpreters and Translators for the Deaf". The first President Mr. Kenneth Huff, established the by-law committee and the membership committee during the Executive Board meeting later that evening. The first members consisted of 42 hearing interpreters and 22 sustaining members, although 7 of the sustaining members stated they were interpreters as well. At this time, all sustaining members were Deaf attendees of the first meeting.