Qualified interpreters can save lives

May 9th, 2005 by Julie Ferguson

We’ve blogged before about language in the workplace, the impact that language has on safety, and the increased risk of death that non-English speaking immigrants face at work. We’ve also talked about the need for cultural competence in health care in the face of changing worker demographics.
In a post entitled People are dying because of their language, Jordan Barab at Confined Space carries a speech that Elisabeth Milos, an interpreter for injured workers, gave at a Workers Memorial Day rally at the state Capitol in Sacramento, California. It’s well worth reading. The points that Milos makes are further bolstered by a recent New York Times article by Nina Bernstein entitled Language Barrier Called Health Hazard in E.R.
Both Milos and Bernstein point out the many problems with leaving translation up to family members or untrained persons. It is important to have a qualified interpreter when serious matter about health or safety must be conveyed. In What does an interpreter do?, the author discusses the role an interpreter can play and distinguishes interpretation from translation.
Employer Resources
How can an employer cope with the challenges that a diverse and multilingual work force poses? I once worked for a progressive manufacturer that offered English-as-a-second-language courses on site, and that regularly brought community interpreters in to acclimate new immigrant employees, such as Vietnamese and Hmong workers. Many immigrant groups have local cultural support centers, and they can be a good source for interpretation or translation.
One other alternative is for telephonic translation services via a three-way conference call. An advantage of such services is that they can be available on short notice, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We can’t vouch for the quality of any of these services, but here are a few you might explore:
Certified Languages International
LLE Languge Services
Tele-Interpreters
Our legal system faces the need for interpreters on a daily basis, so their experience might be instructive. See the Court Interpretation Resource Guide (PDF), or the state links for court interpretation (PDF) which might provide a cookie trail to certified local resources.
If any of our readers have resources to suggest, I would welcome them. This is a topic of growing urgency.