THE STATUS OF GOVERNMENT INTERPRETERS: COMPLIANCE AND EFFICIENCY

With the number of English speakers growing rapidly, government interpreters play a crucial part in the United States too. There’s a sudden increase in the proportion of foreign speakers between 2010 and 2013 as per the American Community Survey (ACS). Moreover, regardless of the languages, the Government agencies should interact with the individuals and have strong associations without any hassle.  

Public Services and Government Interpreters 

Due to linguistic diversity, the value of Government interpreters emerges as undeniably remarkable but a huge language gap is there that might influence the public services. Enhancing communication for deaf and limited-English speakers results in progressing public service. Besides, the Government interpreters assist in building trust with federal, state, and local communities they serve. Employing ample language incentives, involving language interpreters improves communications, certifies amenability, and increases competence which nurtures a positive community. 

Are Government Interpreters Required for Effective Communication?  

Do you know that loss of revenues and augmented costs may occur due to miscommunication? It may be in the form of Government funds, limited resources, delay in services, and accessibility issues throughout different channels. Negatively impacting the status of agencies and ruining the productivity are some of the major aspects of not having professionally trained Government interpreters. From offering language interpretation services to providing emergency responses and public safety, the Government interpreters have it all.  

How Government Interpreters Impact Public Services? 

1. Judicial Systems  

Whether it’s about maintaining the confidentiality and security for people or going an extra mile for the protection of privacy, the Government interpreters show incomparable compliance. Furthermore, judicial and court systems are the highly respectable zones and these Government interpreters abide by the most demanding criteria. 

2. Social Work and Public Services 

These Government interpreters demonstrate the unlimited potential of working closely with public and social welfare organizations. They come up with management services aligned with the health sector or education fields that professionally serve the common goals. Thus, they overcome the barriers of medical surge or other daily activities. 

3. Efficiency 

To double the resources, these Government interpreters enable organizations and agencies to work for public services. With compliance and being dedicated to the state, the language interpreters not only stay compliant with relevant legislation but also support the basic human needs of deaf people. They are also associated with government regulations like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Affordable Care Act, Fraud, Waste and Abuse (FWA), and much more. 

4. Confidentiality and Cooperation 

Understanding the mandatory requirements of the Government, these language interpreters balance the public services, customer services as well as Government needs. In a working environment with an extremely fast pace and higher expectations, these Government interpreters assist in legal, medical, and other public cases. A win-win situation for all those individuals who need help in directing their rental, retail, or other cases, interpreting and conveying your message with the concerned authorities is one of the fundamental agendas – these Government interpreters have. Offering language services at so many levels is everything that one can opt for, and that’s what we at Languagers do! 

Final Verdict 

Being highly competent, Languagers ensures that our interpreters affect your agencies positively along with supporting patients or people of different languages and cultures. By evaluating the public safety concerns, the productivity can be doubled which also encourages the agencies to observe the highest level of public satisfaction. At Languagers, our professional and skilled interpreters assist agencies to tackle cultural and ethnic barriers by ensuring that positive and thorough communication takes place. By offering video interpretations, on-site and instant interpretation services, we have a wide-ranging experience of serving clients at state, federal and municipal levels. To know further, feel free to contact us right away! 

Should an ASL Interpreter You Hire Wear a Mask When Interpreting?

 

As a result of the Coronavirus crisis, seeing an ASLinterpreter sign the daily news has become the new normal for millions of Americans.

Recently, deafinterpreters have also been praised for helping connecting millions of deaf Americans with essential services like telemedicine during the Coronavirus crisis. However, Covid-19 is still raising new challenges for many deaf people.

 

The Covid-19 Mask Debacle No One is Talking About

In several states, wearing masks is now mandatory for millions of Americans. Most people also appreciate doing so as a sensible way to curb Covid-19 transmission rates. However, new mask rules are adversely affecting some people in America's deaf community.

In September, the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe hopes to once again open classrooms to students. However, reopening plans will likely see students have to face coverings.

For students without a hearing impairment, wearing masks is at best an inconvenience. For deaf students, though, (many of whom are not yet fluent in American Sign Language), wearing masks will impede their ability to learn as easily as they might otherwise.

 

What is the Problem with an ASL Interpreter or Deaf Student Wearing a Mask?

The problem for ASL interpreters, students, and teachers is simple. Contrary to popular belief, American SignLanguage is not made up solely of different hand gestures.

As anyone who has seen an ASL interpreter on television recently will realize, American Sign Language uses a wide variety of different facial expressions to relate proper grammar, meaning, and context. This is a problem, as wearing a face covering can make relating extra meaning impossible.

 

Should an ASL Interpreter You Hire Wear a Mask?

At present, the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe is still deliberating what reopening in September might look like. However, many businesses across America are now also wondering how wearing masks might affect the way that they too communicate with deaf consumers.

Thankfully, in most professional business contexts, masks will not impede communication between deaf interpreters and deaf members of the public. At Languagers, for example, we already make available on-demand Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) services.

 

By utilizing VRI interpreting, you can communicate freely with deaf associates or consumers using an ASL interpreter, who joins meetings via a live video link. In this case, no mask will be required by any party.

 

What About When Hiring an on-site ASL Interpreter?

Because VRI technology eliminates any risk of Covid-19 transmission, we advise businesses to connect with deaf interpreters this way whenever possible. However, it is also still possible to hire a Languager ASL interpreter who can appear in person at your next meeting or event.

 

If on-site ASL interpreting is your only option, we advise following the below safety guidelines:

l  Before an interpreter arrives at your location, discuss your event or meeting details with them. When you do, make sure to let them know of any specific social distancing guidelines.

l  At meetings or during events, keep as large a distance as possible between ASL interpreters and meeting members or event attendees.

l  To avoid any confusion or alarm, let everyone present at a meeting or event know why your ASL interpreter and/or any deaf attendees might not be wearing a mask.

It is also worth remembering that the purpose of masks is to stop the spread of Covid-19 from wearers to others. As it stands, you can rest assured that our team at Languagers will never connect you with an ASL interpreter who we have reason to suspect has Covid-19.

Do you need to hire an ASL interpreter but have questions about safety or what VRI interpreting options are available? If so, feel free to reach out to one of our team directly for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

5 Tips When Hiring American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreters

An American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter is a highly educated person. They can convey a spoken language into American sign language and vice versa. An ASL interpreter must speak at least one native language and have a full understanding of ASL signage, which includes body language and fingerspelling communication.

American Sign Language interpreters get hired when someone needs to speak to a deaf person, or when a deaf person needs to talk to a hearing person. Even if the deaf person and the hearing person know the same written language, the deaf person cannot speak words clearly like a hearing person. 

Sure, a deaf person could write down their words for the hearing person to read, but that isn’t always an option.  What if they need to speak to each other on the phone on on-site? Better yet, what if they need to have a video conference on the internet? Typing on a keyboard or tapping virtual keys on the phone does not convey communication fast enough. That is why ASL interpreters are needed. 

ASL interpreters can convey the verbal and signage communication between a hearing person and a deaf person very quickly. The service can be performed on-site, on the phone, or in a video conference call on a computer or mobile device. 

Here are the five essential tips to follow to ensure that you hire a qualified ASL interpreter:

1) Education

Their minimum education requirement must be a Bachelor’s degree in American Sign Language from an accredited college or university. But to ensure that you have a skilled ASL interpreter, they should also possess certification in ASL too. 

National Association of the Deaf is one of the organizations that awards ASL certifications. An interpreter with his certification has proven to have competence as an interpreter of sign language and spoken language. 

2) Experience

The ASL interpreter must have experience. Their linguistic and cognitive skills in English and American Sign Language need to be flawless. As ASL interpreters, they don’t need to convey written communication. They only deal with verbal and signage communication. If they have at least five years of experience on their resume, then they should do a great job. 

3) Specializations

An ASL interpreter may know how to convey standard conversations in English and American Sign Language, but that doesn’t mean they know specific terminology of a particular industry. 

For example, you may need an ASL interpreter who specializes in government, legal, business, education, medical, insurance, or healthcare terminologies. If that’s the case, then you must screen your applicants carefully to find an ASL interpreter who knows the terminology that you need to convey.  

4) Check the Time Zones

American Sign Language interpreters may come from different time zones than you. If you need to schedule a conference call at a particular time that is convenient for you, then you need to make sure your ASL interpreter is close to your time zone. They may agree to be flexible with their schedule if you need a late or early morning session. 

In most cases, there should always be an ASL interpreter available 24 hours per day, seven days per week. You just need to find a company that has several ASL interpreters on standby throughout the day and night.  

5) Reputation

The best American Sign Language interpreters work for reputable companies and service providers with vast network of interpreters throughout the U.S. They always have a certified ASL available online to assist people in their video or phone conversations. Not only do they possess terminology proficiency in various industries, but they’ve all signed confidentiality agreements as well. Therefore, interpreted conversations will remain private afterward!

Check out Languagers Website for more information.

HIPAA Medical Data Compliance and Privacy

Those who work in an industry that deals with healthcare related data must know about Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). For storing and using medical information, you need to stay HIPAA compliant. Now, first of all, you need to know what HIPAA is and how it affects you.

HIPAA was introduced in the year 1996. The law was created to secure patients’ information, and according to it, the data of patients used for any purpose such as billing must be kept confidential. The medical information provided by the patient in any manner, i.e., oral, paper, or printed or say any health data that can recognize a patient is protected by HIPAA act.

After knowing HIPAA, the next thing you need to know more about is HIPAA compliance and privacy.

Who needs to follow the HIPAA privacy act?

 Everyone who owns a website that makes use of any kind of medical data falls under the act and must be compliant to it. The HIPAA medical data compliance act do not want you to be compliant if you are using small information like the weight of the patients. For example, if you collect weight and height data from visitors to create diet charts, you probably don’t need to be HIPAA compliant. But, if you own a website or APP that keeps the record of medical data of any healthcare provider, you need to follow the compliance act.

What are the consequences if you are not compliant?

Not following a privacy protection law can cost you high. Types of violation including fines and penalties are shown in the following chart:

source: wikipedia.org
Moreover, the violating person can also be sent to jail. The jail punishments range from 1 year to 10 years.

General data protection regulation compliance

According to new privacy laws, you also need to be GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant. You are required to make a list of data stored by your website on visitors. Some more rules also need to be followed, but if you are compliant, there is nothing to worry about.

How to ensure compliance and privacy?

To secure the data, follow the following steps:

1. Use data security and  strong encryption
2. Only a few employees who really need data must be allowed to access the information.
3. Those who can access the data must use complex passwords.
4. Use two-step authentication and e-signatures
5. To avoid a data breach, make the data accessible to the minimum number of people plus don’t discuss the information in front of anyone even orally.
6. In case a data breach occurs, use HIPAA breach notification rules and inform the individuals about it.

Are you using a HIPAA compliant interpreting system and APP?

Be sure to use HIPAA compliant interpreters or an interpreting service company like Languagers.com that provides interpretation via phone, video and on-site.