I was talking with a colleague about Title VI. Interpreters are supposed to uphold Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and I was checking what, exactly, that meant. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial [...]
The Minnesota Department of Health gives these recommendations for working with a healthcare interpreter. As professional interpreters, we often introduce ourselves telling the provider… “and please speak directly to each other. I am simply here to be your voice in the other person’s language, saying exactly what you say.” Often, doctors inadvertently lapse into this [...]
CLAS Standard 7: Competence of interpreters – Providing effective and accurate communication between individuals and providers To be able to accomplish this, memory skills are essential! An interpreter must be able to let the speakers express two or three sentences at a time. Why? Because people need to be able to express a coherent thought [...]
I wrote this post in December of 2014. In April 2020, during the COVID crisis, there is a lot of remote interpreting. Only a few months ago, about 80% of the interpreting in the United States was done on-site, face to face. Will we return to face-to-face as a preferred mode of communication? Time will [...]
CLAS Standard 7: “Ensure the competence of individuals providing language assistance” The Cultural and Linguistic Appropriate Services Standards published by the Office of Minority Health, US Department of Health and Human Services in April of 2013, are closely followed by many hospitals. These standards have been written to reduce health inequities. Projections show that in [...]
The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) was signed into law March 7, 1996. The Act made a direct impact on the development of new industrial and technology standards by requiring that all Federal agencies and departments shall: Use technical standards developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies if compliance would not be [...]
The following are three different ways to define cultural competence or competence in intercultural communication. In today’s environment diversity training is very common, and it is important to understand what aspects of this are relevant to interpreting. In this blog post, I will focus on aspects of cultural competence that lead to developing better communication [...]
This week I was reading the CLAS Standards. CLAS stands for Culturally and Linguistic Appropriate Services. I went to the Blueprint on the CLAS site, and downloaded the Blueprint. The full Blueprint is available for download here. EnhancedCLASStandardsBlueprint Standard 7 reads: Ensure the competence of individuals providing language assistance, recognizing that the use of untrained [...]
Medical providers are required to have proof that those who work with them have HIPAA training. The Department of Health and Human Services has published a summary of HIPAA. Interpreters are Business Associates under HIPAA. I believe that voluntary compliance will help interpreters demonstrate that they are proactive about complying with HIPAA requirements and will also [...]
Students have told me that medical providers object to the use of notepads in the interpreting session. I have spoken to my neighbor, a physical therapist, and she told me that the HIPAA regulations are becoming more and more stringent. Medical offices are continually watching out for potential leaks of protected information. However, interpreters need [...]
