MISSION STATEMENT

UConn Communication Access and Interpreting Services (UCIS) cultivates universal inclusion and meaningful access by ensuring a comprehensively accessible educational environment for d/Deaf and hard of hearing students, faculty, staff, and visitors through the provision of exceptional communication access services, leading technologies, community-building enterprises, and educational programming that respond to the dynamic academic, professional, and cultural demands of a public research university.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Meaningful Access

• UCIS provides communication access accommodations to enable full and equitable participation in all aspects of University life. UCIS recognizes that service provision is as diverse as the community we serve. We engage in an interactive process with our consumers and, through this dialogue, reach a better understanding of how each individual and situation is best served. We maintain that communication in a University environment involves more than the discrete action of linguistic conversion. Interpreting is a complex cognitive process that requires linguistic competence, technical skills, and multi-cultural mediation.

Ethical Action

• UCIS staff and affiliates uphold professional integrity and maintain strict confidentiality as called for by their national certifying bodies.  Our team embraces its social responsibility to work in solidarity with the Deaf community to address institutional inequities and oppression. We respect consumer choice and honor individual preferences whenever possible. With this emphasis on collaboration and communication, UCIS strives for transparency and accountability in our work.

Reflective Practice

• We are a team of reflective practitioners who are committed to engaged, critical dialogue. The Integrated Model of Interpreting (IMI) provides a framework for self-reflection and analysis of decision points. This approach allows us to create and sustain a standard of excellence while maintaining agility and responsiveness in a rapidly changing environment. UCIS recognizes the research-based need for supportive teaming, guided by global scaffolding, discipline-specific schema-building, and pragmatic considerations.  We partner with experts in the fields of interpreting, Deafness, sign language studies, disability studies, and communication access to inform our practice. Additionally, staff and affiliates engage in professional development to improve their competence, skills, and leadership capacity.

Community Engagement

• UCIS consistently seeks input from the communities we serve. We engage in tailored individual collaborations with our consumers. We offer educational programming informed by these relationships to raise awareness about the Deaf community, deafness, and universal inclusion. UCIS partners with various UConn stakeholders to engage in ongoing public accessibility initiatives, with the philosophy that Universal Design and experiential equity contribute to a more holistic experience for all.

Intentional Design

• UCIS relies on data-driven decision-making that allows us to be responsive to emerging needs and trends at a tier one research university. We focus on consumer experience with the goal of minimizing impact and sharing responsibility for communication access. Centralization of service provision and integration with other university systems allows us to leverage community resources and technologies, creating a paradigm-shift in the institution to recognize that inclusion is a community endeavor.