THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 3, 1994 TAG: 9410030035
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY DENNIS PATTERSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
A new Spanish translation of tests used for North Carolina driver's licenses should be available in the next two weeks, state officials told the Division of Motor Vehicles Hispanic Task Force last week.
However, a new translation of the manual that helps drivers prepare for the tests won't be ready for a month to five weeks, Wayne Hurder, director of the driver license section, told the panel.
``We figured we'd better go ahead and get the test out because it's a better quality translation than we have now,'' Hurder said.
``The new version is a lot easier to understand than the old version, which was done in a whole different dialect and a whole different time,'' said Lillian Jones, a translator assigned to help Hispanic customers in one of DMV's Raleigh office.
She said an older customer who failed both the written test and an oral test under the old translation passed the first time when given the new test.
Hispanic activists in July protested that DMV was not treating Spanish-speaking customers fairly or moving quickly enough to address their concerns.
In addition to the new translations for driver tests and manuals, Hurder said DMV also is developing a telephone system that will be available by early November that will allow Spanish-speaking callers to get DMV information in Spanish.
He also said the division will ask for three bilingual driver license examiners to be added to its budget next year. The division already has added ``bilingual preferred'' to its advertisements for DMV examiners.
DMV will hire temporary translators at offices in the Wilmington-Jacksonville area, Raleigh, Winston-Salem and Charlotte, Hurder said. Those translators would circulate among area offices on a regular schedule so Hispanics would know when a translator would be available in each office.
In addition to translating in the office, the temporary translators also would be able to accompany examiners during road tests to translate instructions for drivers, Hurder said.
DMV also is expanding the list of documents it will accept as identification from people applying for driver's licenses to include Mexican military cards and English translations of birth certificates or other documents in Spanish, he said. by CNB