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VR Professionals Self-Directed Course

Schawn Hardesty presents information about the Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals Self-Directed Course in American Sign Language.

This self-directed course was specifically designed for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) personnel who are fluent in ASL. This ten-hour online, bilingual (ASL and written English) course provides an opportunity to learn more about the IRIS Project’s goals and approaches; resources that the IRIS Project and others developed to address and explore the demand for effective rural interpreter practitioners; and opportunities to consider the challenges and opportunities of rural interpreting and the deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind communities they work with.

Trenton Marsh a facilitator for IRIS: CORE Initiative Cohort 1

Throughout the Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals Self-Directed Course, participants experienced the following:

  1. Exposure to the experiences of Deaf individuals who live in rural areas;
  2. Exposure to the experiences of interpreters who live in rural areas; and
  3. Exploration of the challenges and opportunities of rural interpreting. 

Upon completion of this module, participants were able to: 

  1. Identify personal language models.
  2. Identify key challenges presented to interpreters in rural settings.
  3. Identify key challenges faced by rural deaf community members.
  4. Identify opportunities for future collaboration with rural deaf and interpreting communities.

VR Professionals Curriculum

" "  Feel free to review and use this Canvas course and curriculum materials!

Supporting documentation:

Curriculum materials are in a read-only format. Do you want to use this content in a Learning Management System (LMS)? Learn how to import it! Should you download the cartridge, you will need to create assignments and quizzes manually.

The University of Northern Colorado and the IRIS Project are not offering Continuing Education Units (CEU) processing for the content presented here. Should you be interested in RID CEUs, please contact any RID CMP Sponsor to inquire about a participant-initiated learning activity.


Please note that these resources are being made available to you as they were presented during the 2021-2026 grant cycle. Permission is granted to copy and disseminate this product for noncommercial educational purposes provided ÌðÐÄÊÓÆµapp-IRIS is credited as the source and referenced appropriately on any such copies. .

Suggested citation: ÌðÐÄÊÓÆµapp-IRIS. (2024). Name of ResourceURL (if applicable). 


" "  Disclaimer 

Neither endorsement nor verification is intended or made of any hypertext link, product, service, or information, either by its inclusion or exclusion from this page or site. Some links may become outdated or expired over time. Users are encouraged to verify the information independently and exercise discretion when relying on external or online resources.

Grant Recognition

The contents of this website were developed under a grant (H160D210006) from the Department of Education. HD160D210006 (University of Northern Colorado) IRIS Project - Improving Rural Interpreter Skills was one of several interpreter training projects to receive funding under Assistance Listing Number (ALN) 84.160D: 2021-2026. IRIS was awarded under Specialty Area 5, field initiated, in the topic area of improving rural interpreting skills.

The contents of the IRIS Project website do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e-3 and 3474).

As of September 30, 2025, this grant project is no longer active.

This website will remain available as a resource.

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The (NCRTM) website is a central portal for accessing archived and new rehabilitation training resources offering search capabilities, a quality rating system, as well as enhanced usability and accessibility.