The Medical Interpreter Certification is guided by the following principles:

1. The skills and knowledge assessed must reflect the fundamental components identified as essential to the profession.
2. The assessment is based on a “standards models” that defines what the candidate should know and be able to do (content standards) and describes clearly the criteria for good performance (performance standards).
3. The assessment methodologies used focus on the skills and knowledge required for competent performance in the field and is not so culture bound to make sure that candidates from different cultures are successful regardless of their cultural background.  (I need clarification with this statement I made some edits but was clearly confused by it)
4. Attention is paid to equity issues in assessment
   -Content and performance standards must be clear to all (criteria must be visible and transparent).
   -Resources to learn what is to be known must be available to all potential candidates; this includes written training materials.
5. The design of the test is flexible enough so that it can be used in a comparable way for all cultural linguistic groups. Although the content should reflect linguistic and cultural variations (e.g., specific disease syndromes prevalent in the target group), the standards and performance expectations should remain the same.
6. Attention is paid to consequential validity. The battery of tests that make up the MIAC will be evaluated not just in terms of face validity and reliability but also in terms of the social consequences of the outcomes of the assessment (consequential validity).  Assessments do not meet the criterion of consequential validity when competent candidates are excluded simply because of the inappropriateness of the methods of assessment. 
   
   

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Please send comments to IMIACertification@gmail.com This is an important part of our transparent and inclusive process.