In this chapter, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:

1.    “Appointing authority” means the presiding judge of any court, the chairman of any board, commission, or authority, and the director or commissioner of any department or agency before which a qualified interpreter is required pursuant to this chapter.

2.    “Deaf person” means any person whose hearing is totally impaired or whose hearing is so seriously impaired as to prohibit the person from understanding voice communication, or the English language including, but not limited to, a person who is deaf, mute, deaf-mute, or deaf-blind.

3.    “Principal party in interest” means a person in any proceeding in which that person is a named party or a person with respect to whom the decision or action which may be taken in any proceeding directly affects.

4.    “Qualified interpreter” means an interpreter certified by the national registry of interpreters for the deaf or North Dakota association for the deaf, or an interpreter who has been approved by the superintendent of the school for the deaf, or, in the event such an interpreter is not available, any other interpreter whose actual qualifications have otherwise been appropriately determined.