Bucky/Linguabee’s response to Regan, Webb, and RID

[@miaheisley281]

I appreciated this vlog. Clear, informative and respectful. This is HOW we need to do our vlogs. It takes TIME to collect facts and truly understand a certain situation or event. Thank you for sharing this.

[@Pegsigns]

Thank you for making Linguabee’s part in this situation public. It is exactly as I suspected. I will remain in support of Dr Webb’s work as a professional with outstanding integrity. Now that I see what a predicament he was in, I can imagine how difficult it must have been for him to endure criticism based on false assumptions. I sincerely hope your vlog helps bring understanding to this issue. Thank you for contributing to this discussion by stepping into the public eye.

[@LibbyLael]

Wow! WoW! Thank you for the FULL revelation. This information is appreciated and well received.

[@KingofKings5725]

The Oscar goes to … Bucky! Well said!

[@cherylhenderson5415]

This is very common, and exactly what I suspected happened (either a hiring entity won't approve a CDI or there isn't one available for that date/time). Thank you for this public statement.

[@buckywithlinguabee6628]

TRANSCRIPT (3 OF 3) In Regan’s vlog challenging President Webb, I could understand her position disapproving him to interpret without a CDI, but in President Webb’s position, he couldn’t say anything at all as a professional interpreter all while maintaining his commitment to the CPC. It was a sticky situation. However, I truly felt that some of Regan’s comments were personal attacks towards him directly. For example, I thought one comment from her was pretty harsh. She commented about how he wasn’t signing properly as it was “lousy” and he shouldn’t interpret at all again. That was her opinion. That was a white person’s opinion. That was a white signer’s opinion. We actually have Deaf consumers in the community who thought President Webb’s interpreting skills were top-notch. That was also their opinion. Are they right? Are they wrong? I don’t know. However, her comments were pretty harsh. It was hard for me and my company to see that, while we were the ones who convinced President Webb to take up the job, he had to endure all of the personal attacks. It was tough watching other people jumping to conclusions without even knowing the full story inside where we, as an agency, we're trying to arrange something for the community as best as we could. There’s another thing. When that heated community discussion happened, President Webb and I actually had a debrief of our own, and then we moved on. There’s one thing I want to recognize and point out is MJ Bienvenu’s vlog last month. There are two or three vlogs from her. She brought up a good point in her first one then there was a second vlog mentioning how Regan didn’t really learn anything. Because of that, MJ almost moved on with her life, to disconnect from her and the problems, but then only paused herself to realize that was a racist behavior to ignore racist problems. It was a white privilege to just disconnect easily from the problem and move on with life while Black people can’t. It’s an everyday issue for them. MJ recognized that and made another vlog to continue her dialogue with Regan. I hope that this has created some good dialogues even though there are tensions along the way, but that’s normal. We all have to go through difficult conversations and some tensions to be able to grow together. It will get better. So, it pains me to see how President Webb was constantly attacked and he was a Black man. And I also recognize that we are a white-owned company. That Black man took the beating for a white-owned company. That’s not right at all. It’s wrong. We kept silent while all of that happened. Now, this is the time, a good time, for me to step in and say something. I want to stand with President Webb and inform you that he truly supports CDIs. It’s also true that he signed a paper about using CDIs for public events. What Regan failed to mention was that it was not related to any public event, but only coronavirus, any public hazard, or medical event. Basically, it was more for any health issue that was listed in the paper. The assignment President interpreted wasn’t related to any of that. However, it doesn’t really matter and I understand Regan’s perspective that we, as a Deaf community, were trying to push for Deaf interpreters to cover any public events and beyond. I understood that. President Webb truly advocated for CDIs, but no one knew that information… until now. President Webb... I am sorry you had to experience this. I often sat here and wondered if you were white just like me. As a white man, would I have experienced the same if I were in your situation? I highly doubt it. That was hard. My heart goes out to you. This company, Linguabee, as a whole team feels for you. And then you also decided to resign. That touched us deeply. We, as Linguabee, felt that there may be other issues that had affected your decision, but this one was also a part of it. Your decision to resign was partly because you felt that more harm could have been done if you continued as a president. You’re looking at the bigger picture. You wanted to continue advocating for RID but in a different way. Maybe we agree, maybe we don’t agree, but it doesn’t matter. You are looking at the bigger picture by embracing RID, the interpreting field, and did this as a service to the Deaf community. I salute you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, I want to say something to you, Regan. I want to understand your motive, your intentions, and your hidden reasons in your vlog. Surely, you had some valid arguments. I just felt that the personal attacks from not just one vlog, but many other vlogs were clearly seen and strongly towards President Webb. I want to understand your position a little better, I have seen your vlogs and I can see that you are processing some things yourself. I am going through that myself, too, and have learned a lot. So, I want to understand more and I am assuming that the intention of this was done for one of the two reasons. One is that you honestly want the best for RID, for the interpreting standards to be brought to the next level, and strongly advocate CDIs for communication access. That could be one reason. The second reason is that you may have some personal history with President Webb that I don’t know the full story about. As an outsider, I assumed and felt it was due to both of the reasons. I respectfully would like to stand with you as well on the issues of CDIs and make significant and meaningful changes within RID, which contains strong audism, racism, sexism, and many more. I honestly hope this will change someday. We have to be a part of this change. You are fighting against audism and advocating for CDIs. I want to thank you. I hope to work with you on that someday. However, in the second reason regarding your personal attacks, I sincerely hope I am wrong. Possibly, you realized your approach was wrong and you reacted impulsively on the spot. I hope as we move forward, not just in the topics of RID, audism, racism, or anything like that, but in the general dialogue of life conflicts, we wouldn’t personally attack and alienate one another. Now, I want to talk about the board members of the RID. I have seen in the last two years that they were working really hard to make some changes for the better. I was being optimistic during that time when they changed some organizational structures. RID never went through that serious changes previously, so they were working tirelessly with an understanding that there were a lot of disagreements in the way and people advocating for different things. Again, that’s normal. Change is hard. All of the board members were working hard to include other people and went through a lot of meetings while they also had their own jobs, plus possibly families to be with. This is hard. The concept of changing the whole structure of an organization isn’t that easy. Fifteen thousand members. Can we satisfy all fifteen thousand members and put all of them in a boat immediately? No. It takes a lot of time to educate one another and adapt to their own needs in order to find common ground for everyone, so they can be happy, then finally the boat can take off. When President Webb decided to resign, his reasons were valid and good, then all of the board members decided to follow and wanted to stand in solidarity with President Webb, they immediately had my respect. I hope that your work isn’t going to be swept under the rug and life moves on as if nothing happened. I hope not. I hope the new board members will continue to do the work. Surely, I have some of my disagreements, but the truth is that everyone here wants the best for the RID and I also feel that there’s a lot of diversity within new board members right now. I believe that they actually want the best for the community as well. They really did want that. I strongly feel that, too. Nevertheless, I still agree with Regan that the old system is still instilled in the RID as it’s hard to break and there is a possibility that the board members are struggling with that themselves, too. I think we still need to continue this dialogue. There are new board members and we are still waiting on the results of the election to be announced by the RID. With the new board, I hope we can work together to continue the dialogue and do the work to move the RID into a better place. I know it’s been a long time since we wait for a better outcome. MJ even expressed her own frustration and she’s not the only one. Many people share the same frustration, especially the Deaf community. I look forward to a better tomorrow. We will continue this dialogue. Remember, Do No Harm.

[@stevoph7]

someone sent me this link and it is quite long. I am just a user/viewer. One thing that was not discussed is $$$$. Does it cost more to have 2 interpreters (one hearing and one CDI) or one hearing interpreter? If that is the case maybe that is why the company perfered one hearing interpreter to save cost.

[@saritacornwall2703]

First of all, I am greatly appreciated that you shared the full detailed information with all of us on this public video. I have many unanswered questions as I know you may be too late to fix those problems. Here my questions are for you: Why did you wait longer to post this video? If it might have to do with the expiration date of NDA, then I would quite understand. I never met Dr. Webb and Reagan. I am a black deaf woman myself. Starting with the suffixes, -isms, who do you think caused racism, audism, sexism, and ageism in America? I bet you know the easy answer. That is the white hearing man as the superior due to many centuries ago, slavery and segregation. Those suffering, oppression, and pain impacted all the humanity in America for many years. In my viewpoint, a PERSONAL ATTACK = RACIAL DISCRIMINATION/HARASSMENT/VIOLENCE that Dr. Webb painfully experienced by his opposer Reagan, a white deaf woman. You are a white deaf man. You wanted to be very careful where you drew a line, which I understand due to your profession. What about your off-duty hours? Can you do freedom of speech by supporting anti-violence and anti-bullying campaigns? Honestly, I am not tolerating any personal attacks. I don't think Reagan would answer your second question about why she attacked Dr. Webb personally. You and I might not know who Reagan is outside and in. That is in the depth of Reagan's outlook. I strongly feel for Dr. Webb's decision to resign as RID President. Maybe he had to protect his mental health and well-being. Tolerating personal attacks in both public and private in long months or years can affect overall Dr. Webb's psychological and physical. Reagan's behavior to me should be TOXIC and UNHEALTHY.

[@dinahlee100]

If events are going to have a CDI, they also need to have a hearing interpreter....many of us prefer NOT to watch a CDI !

[@johnhancock8463]

thank you

[@countrymami2]

true… but regan harm president webb, and heather mewshaw! Regan need to stop pick on others and she act like she know it all… she did alot harm!

[@ridor9th]

NO she did not harm Webb. Get real.

[@LibbyLael]

I agree with you Countrygal Land

[@LibbyLael]

I agree with you Countrygal Land

[@ixodioxi]

@@ridor9th She did... Regan is a horrible human being.

[@ridor9th]

@@ixodioxi She was not. Please watch Nichola Schmitz's latest vlog. I know her very well - more than you do, you have no right to judge her like that.

[@buckywithlinguabee6628]

TRANSCRIPT (2 OF 3): That’s what the CPC is simply all about. Now, with the true purpose of the CPC, “Do No Harm,” it made me realize the whole time Linguabee remained silent about the situation where President Webb took in all the attacks. It was just tough for me to watch. Accordingly, I have decided and felt the urgent need, with the understanding of what “Do No Harm” means, to tell you what happened now. This way everyone in the community can look into it and learn from this. Often, most people aren’t given an opportunity to see how an agency operates. I know there are many agencies that run differently, but I am commenting on behalf of Linguabee. As most of you know, Linguabee is a profoundly Deaf-user driven company that strongly encourages Deaf consumers to choose their own interpreters through our platform. Sometimes there is an exception when it comes to public events or hospitals where Deaf consumers can’t pick their own interpreter. It has happened before. In that case, we would do our best every time to arrange interpreting services. So, in this situation, the company requested our interpreting services for a certain public event. But first, a contract was signed and then they made their request. It was for a public event. We were getting ready to arrange a full team including CDIs, but the company was unfamiliar with CDIs. I was more than prepared to roll up my sleeves and elaborate because I am a CDI myself, this was absolutely no problem for me. After explaining to them the significance of CDI and why their services should be utilized, they respectfully declined and preferred hearing interpreters only. I asked them why, after discussing back and forth, I could see that both of us perceived things differently. I tried several different ways to make them understand, but they didn’t budge. Even with the fact that there was also an ally within that company, I reached out to that person for support. We worked together stubbornly, effort by effort, to push for a CDI from each side and there was no luck in breaking that wall. We finally got through at one point and they said they would use CDIs for an event. We were beyond excited to arrange the services and secure CDIs. We were quite proud to see the work. When the next request came in, they chose to have hearing interpreters. I told them how thrilled the Deaf community was about the recent assignment. They still stuck with it, we were left with no choice but to assign hearing interpreters. We, as a company, did discuss this and wondered if we should have stood our ground and only provided services if CDIs were requested. We could have done that. However, this company could easily move on and find other agencies to proceed with their same decision in having hearing interpreters only. Unfortunately, there are many agencies that would not be hesitant about arranging interpreting services without CDIs. The company could just simply make a request through another agency. We could have let that happen, but we had already developed a relationship with this company. We managed to have CDIs here and there. We wanted to maintain what we already had. So, we decided to continue with our efforts instead of standing our ground and demanding a CDI. I believed in working with them slowly and building that bridge, step by step. We went along with that. Whether our agency was right or wrong and if we should stick with what we were willing to offer with our services, only to let them move onto the next agency, that’s also open for another discussion. I truly wish all agencies would work together to ensure that as long as CDIs are utilized, the services can be provided. That way they wouldn’t have any option, but to work with the services provided by the agency. That’s what I really wish for. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen easily nowadays. Perhaps in the future. Regarding that situation where Regan challenged President Webb where the company asked us to provide interpreting services, we requested to have CDIs for the specific assignment and they declined. We felt that President Webb would be a great fit for the request, so we specifically asked him. The original response from him was “No, this requires a CDI. I am more than happy to work with a CDI for this assignment.” We replied, “We agree with you, but this company wouldn’t have it. We tried to get through many times, with the help of an ally, and we still failed.” President Webb struggled and still didn’t feel right at the moment. We worked hard to convince him and we actually succeeded at that. He took the job only because he respected the fact that Linguabee is a Deaf-owned and operated company. A company that is run by a team of Deaf consumers and Deaf interpreters. Because of our places in the community as both Deaf consumers and interpreters, we convinced him. He recognized that we are Deaf and we were aware of it. So, he went ahead with the assignment. He appeared on the screen and interpreted. Immediately after that, things went chaotic and there was Regan’s vlog. Yes, when we first saw President Webb appear on the screen and interpret, and by doing that, viewers quickly assume it’s obvious he wasn’t supportive of CDIs. But no one knew the full story. Now it begs the question about whether people, who have watched CDIs work on the screen, really knew who their teams, the hearing interpreters, were working behind cameras. Often, a video screen only shows a CDI, but you don’t see the hearing interpreter behind that camera feeding the information. The hearing interpreters behind the scenes should be recognized as well because they are the ones who feed information, working with CDIs. But, who was that interpreter? Perhaps, it could have been President Webb at the moment. You never know. I know we all are humans and sometimes we can be reactive, including myself. I can be strongly opinionated. I would remind myself to pause at times and put myself in others’ shoes or try to learn of their perspectives and their side of the story. When I struggle to understand, I would keep asking questions to others for me to try and fully grasp the situation at hand. But if not, sometimes I would still stick to my own opinion in the end. It’s normal for everyone to have their own different opinions.

[@buckywithlinguabee6628]

TRANSCRIPT (1 OF 3): I’m Bucky (sign name). I’m the Queen Bee of Linguabee. Last year, I watched a vlog by Regan Thibodeau (sign name) and she expressed her concerns about Jonathan Webb interpreting without a CDI. She wondered what was going on with that. Jonathan Webb is the RID president and also a certified interpreter. Here, I will refer to him as President Webb in this vlog. In Regan’s vlog, she expressed her frustration that President Webb interpreted without a CDI for a public event. She also mentioned that he is the RID president who had signed a paper that, at any public event, the services of a CDI is to be utilized. That wasn’t the case at that certain public event when he interpreted without a CDI. As I watched the heated community discussion over that issue last year, I watched carefully to people’s inputs and opinions. It cooled down after a while until about a month ago, the discussion reemerged. There were more people involved this time, actively discussing and expressing their own opinions. As a spectator, I actually have learned a lot from everyone and the dialogues themselves. I thought that the open dialogues in this community were truly wonderful. We are benefitting from the Internet and technology, where videos and general distribution of information are shared widely. We are able to communicate our ideas and thoughts with others across the nation and even the world. We are able to listen and learn a lot of things through this. While it’s important to have interpersonal skills and be able to analyze ourselves, it's equally important to have an open dialogue in the community as well. When I am analyzing issues within myself, I also will need to know the difference between right and wrong through others’ lenses. Without others, how would I be able to know whether it’s right or wrong. That’s where the community comes in. I share my background with others, then others share their different ones, background by background, and there we figure out how to grow together by having an open dialogue. The more we get on video and calls across the world, we are able to progress everything faster. With technology, our world is actually becoming smaller and smaller. Outsiders in this world are trying to get even with the Deaf community and I am here to let you know that they can’t. After listening to the community discussions, I thought it was tough and great at the same time. I feel it’s time for me to contribute to the community by engaging in this open dialogue, and I want to. First of all, I want to explain a bit of background on Regan’s vlog. She challenged President Webb, RID, and basically anyone to provide CDIs at any public events. She specifically mentioned that they had signed a paper stating the position on CDIs to be utilized as a part of the interpreting services for public events. He supported it, made a position on that clearly by signing it, and yet he still interpreted without a CDI. She also made some comments that were deemed as personal attacks towards him. I felt for him. I noticed the personal attacks of hers were what really caused the heated discussion within the community including different topics like racism, audism, and others. It wasn’t just the issue of him as a hearing interpreter without a CDI. It was more than that. Another point brought up was a hunch that he, as the RID president, used his power and face to intentionally “steal that job.” I understood that was their perspective. It was tough for me to see what was happening. Truly tough. Now, I am here to let you know that we, Linguabee, were the ones who arranged that job. We assigned President Webb to become the interpreter for that certain event. Before I get to the depths and analyze this situation, I want to let you know that it’s already hard for me and this company. While this controversy was out in the public, we couldn’t say anything because the work was confidential. There were two reasons for this; The first reason was the Non-Disclosure Agreement, NDA, where we signed the contract with another company and they requested it. An NDA is a common business arrangement everywhere. It means we must strictly adhere to confidentiality without sharing a shred of information. It is a serious confidentiality breach if the information was shared, so we couldn’t share with anyone openly that we were interpreting for them. All we could do was arranging interpreting services by getting information on requests and assigning interpreters. That’s all we could do. When they wanted an NDA, we honored it as a part of the contract. That was the first reason. The second reason was RID's CPC, the Code of Professional Conduct, which meant the confidentiality, ethics, professionalism in clothing, appearance, and performance of an interpreter, along with other things that were listed in it. The CPC only applies to interpreters, not the agencies, and they must abide by the code of conduct. I hope that one day, RID will recognize the importance of having a code of professional conduct for agencies and push for it. Perhaps NAD can take over and push that one forward to ensure that the agencies honor and abide by something similar to RID’s CPC. I am hoping for that to happen someday. Nevertheless, we, Linguabee, still abide by the CPC as we know it’s the right thing to do. We know there are also other reputable interpreting agencies that abide by it as well. We have remained silent regarding the situation ever since due to the NDA and CPC. As of now, our NDA contract has expired and we don’t have to be concerned about lawsuits anymore except the CPC. Does that mean we ignore the seriousness of CPC and tell you anyway? That’s not necessarily true. We have taken this into serious consideration and discussed it with the team. The CPC itself has strict guidelines and rules to follow in order to provide professional interpreting services. We have looked through those thoroughly. It all boiled down to this with three words; “Do No Harm.” Period.

[@jeffholub9601]

Look at Corporation Translators Services may eat up small business of interpreter agencies? Compare policy too.

[@jeffholub9601]

It need be RID360 as whole picture of policy, staff and more…. ITP programs - College / Tech School need more CDI / Students , Agencies - Owners need more responsible for high quality of interpreters - workshops. Etc…. It s overdueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…. Blame on elite or mindset of 1950’s of people. Lazy? But hope this time, we do mean for change it for deaf children -future.

[@TedH71]

Isn't Regan a deaf/blind individual? Wouldn't that factor in her comments about "lousy signing" and what not? Also isn't it common knowledge that companies do not want to pay for TWO interpreters when ONE can do just fine? Think about the cost they have to pay and what most deaf people don't realize is that whenever an interpreter is hired, the company has to pay for TWO hours of interpreting services not 15 mins, not 30 mins..or by the minute. It's done in 2 hour block increments.

[@ixodioxi]

Yes, it does cost more but the information is more CLEAR when we have a Deaf interpreter present. The company can afford it and in this case, the company is the US government.

[@judyshepard-kegl6043]

One word: cogent!