RID provides a Certification Maintenance Program (CMP)[2] to certified members in support of skill-enhancing studies.
The organization also collaborated with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) to develop the Code of Professional Conduct (CPC).
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.
[8] 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".
[1] The original members were educators, psychologists, and other professionals who worked with the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind communities.
Many were connected to the Deaf community based on family, friends, employment, or religious association and had careers separate from interpreting.
[1][9] One of the most challenging tasks that RID had to overcome was changing the perspectives of both Deaf and Hearing clients, from the interpreter being a helper to a professional.
RID is governed by an eleven-member board of directors elected directly by the voting membership for a two-year term.
Voting rights are determined by being a member in good standing of both RID (in the certified or associate category) and a sanctioned affiliate chapter.
The Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) is a Continuing Educations Unit (CEU) tracking system for Certified Members.
The four ways to earn CEUs are Workshops that are RID/ACET approved, Participant Initiated Non-RID Activities (PINRA), Academic Coursework, and Independent Study.
A member must also gain 1.0 or 10 hours of Power, Privilege, and Oppression (PPO) CEUs that will be included in the Professional Studies category.
For a person to earn CEUs in the PINRA, Academic Coursework, and Independent Study categories, they need to contact a CMP Sponsor to approve and process them before and after the activity.