Languages We Speak

Who is at fault when parents misunderstand medical instructions due to a language barrier, and their child dies as a result? Public pressure to answer that question caused laws to evolve several times recently because of such a situation. America has been a melting pot of languages since its inception, and that is no different today. There are over...

Improving active involvement in local government for all citizens is important to many cities, but sometimes it’s not easy to know where to start. A language access plan (LAP) can provide you with a roadmap that the entire city government can use to help determine where each department is at in the process of increasing language accessibility. From...

With another election coming up, many voters are already thinking about casting their ballots fairly soon. US citizens who speak languages other than English will often have access to election materials in their primary language thanks to federal provision requiring that state and local elections officials provide translated ballots and other docum...

It is important that translators in the healthcare sector are familiar with HIPAA and carefully comply with all HIPAA regulations. Since HIPAA’s designed to protect patients and preserve privacy in healthcare, translation is carefully regulated to make sure accidental or purposeful violation of privacy policies is prevented. Translators are general...

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) was amended in 2016, and now these new provisions have gone into effect for 2018. Insurance companies offering plans for employees should learn about the new translation requirements and be ready to implement them. This post introduces the ERISA translation requirements and explains how in...