(1) As used in this section:
(a) “Person with a disability” means a person who cannot readily understand or communicate the spoken English language, or cannot understand proceedings in which the person is involved, because of deafness or because of a physical hearing impairment or cannot communicate in the proceedings because of a physical speaking impairment.
(b) “Sign language interpreter” or “interpreter” means a person who translates conversations or other communications for a person with a disability or translates the statements of a person with a disability.
(2) A person with a disability has a privilege to refuse to disclose and to prevent a sign language interpreter from disclosing any communications to which the person with a disability was a party that were made while the interpreter was providing interpretation services for the person with a disability. The privilege created by this section extends only to those communications between a person with a disability and another, and translated by the interpreter, that would otherwise be privileged under ORS 40.225 to 40.295.