The National Motorcycle Safety Fund has created a new grant program to help rider training sites cover the costs of hiring sign-language interpreters for deaf and hard of hearing students. MSF expects MSF-recognized Rider Training Sites across the nation to make reasonable accommodations for people with physical disabilities, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state laws. A common accommodation is for a training site to hire, often at its own expense, sign-language interpreters.
There are many deaf and hard of hearing car drivers and motorcyclists on the road today. To compensate, drivers and motorcyclists typically employ risk-reduction strategies such as Search/Evaluate/Execute (SEE), maintain longer following distances, make better use of peripheral vision, and check their mirrors more frequently.
The 15-hour MSF Basic RiderCourse is the premier, research-based novice motorcyclist training curriculum in the U.S. and consists of one 5-hour classroom session and two 5-hour hands-on riding sessions. Due to course length and depth of instruction, two sign-language interpreters are generally needed because a single interpreter is not able to work nonstop for each session. The MSF already pays 100 percent of interpreter costs in the states in which it directly manages the training program. However, the NMSF would like to ease the financial burden on MSF-recognized training sites in the other states by offering a grant for each class in which interpreters were used, to cover the actual cost of the interpreters, up to $750. The NMSF has set aside a pool of $15,000 in funding for the next 12 months for these grants.
Training sites simply need to fax the class completion report, the interpreter agency’s invoice, and the name of the deaf or hard of hearing student(s) to MSF at 949.727.4217, and MSF will send a check to the appropriate site representative. Payment will be made whether or not the student passed the course. This offer does not apply to training sites that already receive reimbursements from their state’s rider training program office.
For more information: nmsfund.org or msf-usa.org
