GLAD23: Language Rights and Language Professionals Save Lives

How do you believe language professionals help save people’s lives?

Ian McKamey:

On an anecdotal level, having worked as an interpreter, and been in and around the language access industry for over 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand, many times, how clear, nuanced communication between a patient and a provider can make the difference between a negative or positive outcome, sometimes even life or death, for example, a patient who’s having a heart attack or a stroke, every second counts.

Graciela Zozaya:

Interpreters in health care, for example, where if you go to a doctor and you have to communicate your symptoms accurately so that doctors can understand, an interpreter is vital, right? There have been a lot of malpractice suits based on language differences. So in order to be able to tell your doctor what your symptoms are, and understand your doctor’s directions, you need an interpreter to be there.  And the interpreter actually saves lives by providing that access, that language access.

Ahmed Abdulmajeed:

I believe that a person’s life includes elements like their health care, their education, their financial freedom, and their access to government services. And I believe that providing language access through language professionals, through skilled language professionals, is very, directly impactful towards all these goals for our limited English proficient communities.

How does MasterWord support language rights? 

Ahmed:

MasterWord invests into our talent pool and our language professionals, and the development of our language professional resources. We provide trainings, we provide assessments to assess the skills of our existing talent pool, and we also make technology and innovation our ally so that we can increase and grow the impact of language access and its visibility, with the help of our clients.

M. Cody Francisco:

MasterWord, really, their cherish and support for language rights, it is about each individual and, you know, their own type of language, their culture and everything, and how it can be a successful coordination of that. Information is paramount, it is important, and communication, their language access, and really all parties involved knowing what is happening on their own and just knowing what is happening in their lives, that is what is most important to make sure that everyone is on a level playing field.
MasterWord really fully supports that philosophy.

Ian:

As interpreters, we enable a mother’s first questions about how to care for her newborn baby to be spoken and heard with no barriers to understanding. We enable a family member’s last wishes to be documented and expressed exactly as they had intended from one language into another. In emergencies, we are among the first to respond right alongside the police, EMTs, whether it be via phone or in person. We show up and ensure meaningful communication happens.  Now imagine a world without interpreters.  A world without that bridge that gives us access to information and understanding. It’s not just for individuals with limited English proficiency. It’s a benefit for everyone.

Graciela:

By providing and advocating for language access, by providing training to providers, to all the people involved, and in communication with people of limited English proficiency, by providing education both to interpreters and to users, to hospitals, to government organizations about people’s rights to have language access, you know. Language access is a civil right.  So by providing this education to our clients and supporting them in their efforts to provide language access, I believe MasterWord has a great role in providing language rights to people all over the world.

What are tangible actions we can take to support language rights as human rights? 

Cody:

Language rights are a human right. You know, some of us who are born deaf or born in different countries, different ethnicities and cultures and different nations, we cannot be forced and made to adjust to a different culture, to make sure that our lives and our needs are being met. It is my right to know what is happening in my own life and make my own decisions, and that really impacts in having that respect and honor for each other.

You know, really, language access is powerful and communication is paramount, and it really matters.

Graciela:

Being aware when you might be in a position where you’re going to deal with a person that needs language access and making sure that your organization has in place a plan, a language access plan and a program to provide these services for people of limited English proficiency.

Ahmed:

I think today we definitely need to audit and monitor the implementation of existing legislation that guarantees the right to language access and language access equity. And I believe that we also need funding, we need direct government funding. They should go directly into providing language access for health care, for education, so these communities can feel like they’re actively being welcomed to participate in accessing all the services that the government have provided for them.

Ludmila Golovine:

At MasterWord, we support the Global Coalition for Language Rights and its mission to promote language rights for all people, speakers of all languages, including speakers of marginalized languages, Indigenous languages, languages of limited diffusion, who want to have the same access to health care, education, government services, the same access to opportunity, the same digital rights as all people.
Language rights save lives.