Pridemore’s driver interpreter bill to be signed into law

OLYMPIA – It’s a nail-biting rite of passage for most teenagers: taking the driving exam to earn a license. The test requires months of preparation and determines whether teens will take a critical step to freedom and adulthood.

Now imagine being forced to take that all-important exam in a foreign language.

That’s what happened to 16-year-old Ashli-Marie Grant. The Vancouver girl, who is deaf and communicates using American Sign Language (ASL), was not allowed to use an interpreter while taking her driving exam. She passed the test and earned her license, but said she was unnecessarily humiliated by the process. Ashli-Marie first tried to decipher someone finger-spelling instructions while she drove, then had to pull over to read notes.

As a Senate page, she brought the issue to the attention of Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, who sponsored Senate Bill 6415 requiring the state Department of Licensing (DOL) to allow interpreters in the car during exams for deaf or hearing impaired applicants. The interpreter must be chosen from a DOL-supplied list.

The bill will be signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, March 24, in the Legislative Building’s Governor’s Conference Room.

“This bill shows once again why it’s important to listen to our young people: One of the very best pieces of legislation to emerge from this session came from a Senate page,” Pridemore said. “Until Ashli-Marie told me about her experience, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to take such an exam without understanding the instructions. That should never happen.”

Ashli-Marie testified before the Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 2, with her mother interpreting. She told the panel that ASL is so unlike English that it’s a foreign language. Members of the committee found her story so compelling that they took the highly unusual step of immediately moving to executive session to pass the bill.

“I was happy to have passed the test, but I was embarrassed and humiliated after taking it,” Ashli-Marie said during her testimony. “I have been blessed with a very beautiful and expressive language. Taking the test was a step back into archaic times in which our hands were bound to keep us from our language, and in the process our minds and skills were stifled.”

Ashli-Marie has served on the Clark County Youth Commission and has traveled the country giving presentations on youth leadership issues. She will attend the bill signing on Friday.

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