§ 21.002.Interpreters for Deaf Persons

The entitlement, and it covers three roles.

In a civil case or in a deposition, a deaf person who is a party or witness is entitled to have the proceedings interpreted by a court-appointed interpreter. A deaf person who is a juror in any case is entitled to the same.

Two things are worth noticing. Depositions are covered, not merely trials — the entitlement follows the proceeding, and much of a case happens outside the courtroom. And the juror entitlement is not confined to civil cases; it reads "in any case."

The juror provision is the significant one. A 1987 amendment added it, and it settled that deafness is not a disqualification from jury service in Texas. The subchapter then had to solve the problems that follow — the interpreter in the jury room, the oath that binds them, and the effect on the verdict — which the later sections do.

Subsection (b) is about adequacy, not merely presence. The proceedings must be interpreted in a language, including sign language, that the deaf person can understand. An interpreter using a system the person does not follow satisfies nothing.