CA AB1169

Prohibits general acute care hospitals from including sign language interpreters on their interpreter lists unless they meet specific certification requirements: National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf certification, a score of 4.0 or above on the National Association of the Deaf/American Consortium of Certified Interpreters assessment, or equivalent.

Requires cued language transliterators on hospital interpreter lists to possess a Testing, Evaluation, and Certification Unit certification.

Mandates the Department of Public Health to conduct a study by January 1, 2024, in collaboration with sign language interpretation professionals and deaf and hard of hearing community members, to establish guidelines for selecting testing organizations to administer certification tests for medical interpreters.

Requires the Department of Public Health to approve one or more entities to administer testing for American Sign Language interpreters for deaf and hard of hearing individuals by January 1, 2025, pursuant to the established guidelines.

Section 1259.1 establishing the study requirement expires and is repealed on January 1, 2026.