A new group in Oregon: Oregon Interpreters in Action (OIA)
email : [email protected]
In Oregon, medical interpreters have shown the Legislature that their working conditions necessitate having a way to discuss working conditions. Oregon Interpreters in Action the group of independent contractors who are medical interpreters have those discussions.
Check their meeting schedule and get to know them!
Professional association for interpreters and translators in Oregon
The Oregon Society for Translators and Interpreters (OSTI) is now six years old. Conference planning for 2020 is already underway! How did OSTI start? After a successful drive to help court interpreters to get their first raise in over 15 years. We stayed together to support the needs of all professional interpreters and translators in Oregon and neighbor states.
OIA and OSTI have democratically elected leadership and members participate in the development of the organizations’ policies. OIA discusses working conditions. OSTI discusses other professional issues.
Both are key to a healthy profession. At the Annual Meeting of Members of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care in Philadelphia in 2019, some expressed a need for organizations to take up the banner of working conditions. That is why I support the work of the OIA this year. Professional associations have considered working conditions outside the scope of their work. When a profession does not support working conditions, our profession becomes a revolving door occupation, and our Limited English Proficient community will continue to face a language barrier and all its consequences: misdiagnoses, mistrials, miscommunication with government officials in all areas.
I look forward to a new dialog in 2020, where working conditions for our profession improve, where colleges hire certified professionals to teach our profession in their institutions, knowing that certified professionals have the qualifications to prepare others for our field, where certified professionals are called on to lead the discussions on how to support services for languages with no certifications available.
