Language Accessibility With Carol Velandia

Kim Clark: 00:00:00

Hey everybody, welcome back. I am so glad that

Kim Clark: 00:00:04

you're here for this episode of communicate like it give a damn.

Kim Clark: 00:00:09

Now we're really doubling down on language today with our

Kim Clark: 00:00:13

guest, Carol. Carol, why don't you introduce yourself and i If

Kim Clark: 00:00:17

you don't mind, I'd really like to go straight into it.

Carol Velandia: 00:00:20

Sure. Good afternoon. My name is Carol

Carol Velandia: 00:00:23

Ville. Andrea. I am a linguist, a social worker and an

Carol Velandia: 00:00:27

intrapreneur and also a flamenco dancer. And for the past almost

Carol Velandia: 00:00:32

10 years I have been working, I have been working on the topic

Carol Velandia: 00:00:35

of language access. That's what I am most passionate about. And

Carol Velandia: 00:00:39

I hope we talk a lot about that today.

Kim Clark: 00:00:42

Absolutely. And it was it was based on our

Kim Clark: 00:00:44

conversation that we had where I was listening and saying, oh my

Kim Clark: 00:00:48

gosh, more people need to understand language access and

Kim Clark: 00:00:51

the impact that language has on a person's well being is what

Kim Clark: 00:00:56

you're all about. You know, some people hire translation

Kim Clark: 00:01:00

services, etc, or even used like software in AI like Google

Kim Clark: 00:01:05

Translate, but there's a nuance a culture, nuance, there's the

Kim Clark: 00:01:10

access that can you know, mean, so much a difference between

Kim Clark: 00:01:15

night and day on an employee or citizens experience. And so the

Kim Clark: 00:01:19

more and more we got into that conversation, I said, we just

Kim Clark: 00:01:22

got to bring this conversation to this podcast. So thank you

Kim Clark: 00:01:25

for recording coming in from Spain, I believe you go back and

Kim Clark: 00:01:30

forth between the US and Spain.

Unknown: 00:01:32

Yes, that's right. I am a here for three months here in

Unknown: 00:01:37

Spain in the south of Spain in Granada. I am learning flamenco

Unknown: 00:01:42

dancing, which is another language. So I am very excited

Unknown: 00:01:46

about it.

Kim Clark: 00:01:49

And I am coming off of my lots and lots of travels.

Kim Clark: 00:01:54

And I've been doing so well in staying healthy and pounding

Kim Clark: 00:01:58

eCognition all the things in some way somehow this very last

Kim Clark: 00:02:03

trip that I'm having a break for six weeks before I travel again,

Kim Clark: 00:02:06

and I caught something so you get the lower registered voice.

Kim Clark: 00:02:11

So this smoky blues voice of Kevin Clark today. All right,

Kim Clark: 00:02:18

let's, yeah, you like that? Alright, let's go. So the first

Kim Clark: 00:02:23

question I have for you is, what is language access? You know,

Kim Clark: 00:02:28

help people understand how it differentiates for other other

Kim Clark: 00:02:31

things. And why is it important today in today's multicultural

Kim Clark: 00:02:36

and diverse societies?

Unknown: 00:02:39

Yeah, so language access simply means to provide

Unknown: 00:02:41

the same level of access to services that you provide to an

Unknown: 00:02:45

English speaker. When you're working with a non English

Unknown: 00:02:48

speaker. We probably don't hear about language based

Unknown: 00:02:51

discrimination. But we are discriminating against

Unknown: 00:02:54

multilingual communities every time we deny a service, simply

Unknown: 00:02:58

because they don't speak the dominant language. In our case

Unknown: 00:03:02

in the United States, that will be English. So in a diverse

Unknown: 00:03:05

society like ours, where we not only speak over 400 different

Unknown: 00:03:09

languages, we also have approximately 26 million people

Unknown: 00:03:13

that don't speak English at all. And they face worse outcomes

Unknown: 00:03:19

across healthcare, education, legal services, than the English

Unknown: 00:03:24

speaking population. And that is why it's very important that we

Unknown: 00:03:27

understand the concept of language taxes, and that we make

Unknown: 00:03:30

it relevant.

Kim Clark: 00:03:32

There's so much history with how we got to be

Kim Clark: 00:03:36

having this conversation when companies started deciding that

Kim Clark: 00:03:41

English would be the language of business as globalization

Kim Clark: 00:03:46

started to expand. And many countries started teaching

Kim Clark: 00:03:50

English as part of primary school or elementary school. And

Kim Clark: 00:03:56

so many people born and raised outside of the US have more than

Kim Clark: 00:04:01

one language and English is one of them. And then you look at

Kim Clark: 00:04:06

the US in particular, and other mainly English speaking

Kim Clark: 00:04:09

languages, and we are monolingual. And we are

Kim Clark: 00:04:13

expecting everybody else to speak English and that's, that's

Kim Clark: 00:04:17

a form of colonialism and, and all kinds of things. And so it's

Kim Clark: 00:04:21

an interesting topic for us as communicators, who are putting

Kim Clark: 00:04:27

out communications at a global level. And trying to get to the

Kim Clark: 00:04:34

point of communication, the point of communication for us as

Kim Clark: 00:04:37

communicators, Carol is connection. And this idea of

Kim Clark: 00:04:41

language access is so overlooked and under resourced, you know,

Kim Clark: 00:04:47

in, in my experience and in working with clients. So what

Kim Clark: 00:04:50

are some of the common challenges or barriers that

Kim Clark: 00:04:53

individuals face when seeking language access services, and

Kim Clark: 00:04:58

how can they be overcome

Unknown: 00:05:00

When we you mentioned, for example, at the beginning,

Unknown: 00:05:04

all these different technologies that we have, and all these

Unknown: 00:05:08

different mentalities that we have around language. So we have

Unknown: 00:05:12

a lot of resources in a way. But we actually need a change of

Unknown: 00:05:19

paradigm, because I think that's the main challenge. Because most

Unknown: 00:05:22

people in the US in the US have the mentality that we speak

Unknown: 00:05:27

English in the US, which is obviously true. But the problem

Unknown: 00:05:31

is that they also think that if you don't speak English, you are

Unknown: 00:05:36

not worthy of receiving the services that they offer. So we

Unknown: 00:05:41

don't have that a multilingual mentality in the US we think,

Unknown: 00:05:44

for example, that English is our official language when they, you

Unknown: 00:05:49

know, we don't have an official language in the US, a lot of

Unknown: 00:05:52

people don't know this. And also, the United States has

Unknown: 00:05:55

never been a multilingual country ever. Since the

Unknown: 00:05:59

beginning of our history, we were multilingual. So trying to

Unknown: 00:06:03

change that paradigm, not so much that we now believe that,

Unknown: 00:06:07

okay, we're a multilingual community. But what to do with

Unknown: 00:06:11

that is what's important. That's the challenge that we need to

Unknown: 00:06:16

address is how do we interact? How do we communicate with

Unknown: 00:06:22

people that don't speak English? Because as you said, the the

Unknown: 00:06:25

main point is connection. So how do we go about that? So in the

Unknown: 00:06:30

house is where where we find the biggest challenge that that

Unknown: 00:06:35

people have, because we actually have the resources, the laws,

Unknown: 00:06:38

and we're going to talk about that. But it's a change of

Unknown: 00:06:40

mentality what I think we need to be seeking and achieving.

Kim Clark: 00:06:45

I love that I love that it's a paradigm you're

Kim Clark: 00:06:48

absolutely right. And, and that's a part of some of us as

Kim Clark: 00:06:51

communicators, our bias, we just, you know, we haven't been

Kim Clark: 00:06:54

thinking about it from, you know, unless we're really,

Kim Clark: 00:06:58

really challenged and been getting some pushback from some

Kim Clark: 00:07:00

countries who are just like, this translation is, or you're

Kim Clark: 00:07:04

not providing, you know, access to us. You know, when I'm

Kim Clark: 00:07:07

working with Canadian clients, they always want to make sure

Kim Clark: 00:07:10

that French Canadian ism is included. So that was very, very

Kim Clark: 00:07:13

purposeful, but I'll go to other more global organizations. And

Kim Clark: 00:07:18

there won't be that request. You know, there isn't any kind of

Kim Clark: 00:07:22

function function. Like for example, just yesterday morning,

Kim Clark: 00:07:25

I did a talk for Europe. And there was many, many countries

Kim Clark: 00:07:31

that were in on that virtual workshop that I provided for the

Kim Clark: 00:07:34

client. And the client is based in Amsterdam. And there was no

Kim Clark: 00:07:40

conversation of any kind of translation services,

Kim Clark: 00:07:43

captioning, those kinds of things. The expectation was that

Kim Clark: 00:07:46

I speak English and they will receive it in English, there was

Kim Clark: 00:07:50

actually no conversation about it. And I know enough to not

Kim Clark: 00:07:55

talk too fast. You know, in my high school, French are my

Kim Clark: 00:08:00

college French and my high school Spanish when I hear those

Kim Clark: 00:08:03

languages spoken, you know, if they're slower, I can understand

Kim Clark: 00:08:07

more. And I've been given the feedback that as an English

Kim Clark: 00:08:10

speaker, when there's multiple languages, to just slow down a

Kim Clark: 00:08:14

beat, you know, not go so fast. So that's something that we can

Kim Clark: 00:08:17

think of as communicators as well, when there isn't the

Kim Clark: 00:08:21

support. But this in some situations in some industries,

Kim Clark: 00:08:25

when there isn't this language access, it's a matter of life or

Kim Clark: 00:08:29

death. In some situations, let's talk about health care and

Kim Clark: 00:08:32

education legal systems, in what ways can language access

Kim Clark: 00:08:36

services enhance inclusion and equality within these various

Kim Clark: 00:08:40

sectors.

Unknown: 00:08:42

For example, in the healthcare system,

Unknown: 00:08:45

communication, again, is the main diagnostic tool. So if we

Unknown: 00:08:50

are going to have a patient that doesn't speak English, and we

Unknown: 00:08:54

don't provide a language access in the way of our professional

Unknown: 00:08:58

interpreter, that person is more likely to suffer health related

Unknown: 00:09:03

consequences and therefore worse outcomes. In fact, there is a 4%

Unknown: 00:09:10

chance that they are non English speaker suffers severe temporary

Unknown: 00:09:15

harm if they don't have language access than when compared to an

Unknown: 00:09:18

English speaker. So that's one one big consequence. in the

Unknown: 00:09:23

legal field, for example, there is a large amount of wrongful

Unknown: 00:09:30

convictions to people that don't speak English simply because at

Unknown: 00:09:34

the moment of the interrogation, they were not provided with an

Unknown: 00:09:37

interpreter because and this is one of the challenges to going

Unknown: 00:09:41

back to your earlier question. People think that if you are

Unknown: 00:09:45

nodding your understanding, for example, or you speak three

Unknown: 00:09:50

words in English, you are understanding and that

Unknown: 00:09:53

therefore, they can release these a very complicated

Unknown: 00:09:58

questions. For example, in the case of a person Some being

Unknown: 00:10:00

interrogated. I mean, education, of course, the the, the way to

Unknown: 00:10:06

look at it is that parents need to be participating in the

Unknown: 00:10:10

children's education. So the children are going to learn the

Unknown: 00:10:13

language, they're going to learn English, the it is gonna take a

Unknown: 00:10:16

while and the tools for those children that don't speak

Unknown: 00:10:19

English, unnecessarily, but also for the parents so that they get

Unknown: 00:10:23

involved with their education, and then the outcomes of the

Unknown: 00:10:25

children are also better. And by the way, if I if I mentioned

Unknown: 00:10:29

this is another really big challenge is that we are using

Unknown: 00:10:34

children to do professional work as interpreters, right. And that

Unknown: 00:10:39

is one of the most ethical, the biggest ethical violations that

Unknown: 00:10:44

we do today is that we use children, nobody would think

Unknown: 00:10:48

that the US actually a Exploited Children, right, that's not a

Unknown: 00:10:55

conversation we even come across. But when you think about

Unknown: 00:10:58

employing a child, and by the way, there are 11 million

Unknown: 00:11:01

children that work today as interpreter, interpreters, when

Unknown: 00:11:05

we think about employing a child as an interpreted in in such a

Unknown: 00:11:08

complex environment like healthcare, for example, we're

Unknown: 00:11:11

giving them a big responsibility that they are not qualified to

Unknown: 00:11:16

do, we can possibly traumatize this child. So this is this is

Unknown: 00:11:21

something that we definitely have to keep in mind when when

Unknown: 00:11:24

we think about all the different places where language access is

Unknown: 00:11:28

key.

Kim Clark: 00:11:30

I really appreciate that you pointed that out,

Kim Clark: 00:11:33

because we just take it for granted. I don't think we're

Kim Clark: 00:11:36

really thoughtful. And in, in, in a lot of situations. I know

Kim Clark: 00:11:40

when I was getting divorced, there was the option of Spanish

Kim Clark: 00:11:45

speaking. And you know, anybody asked in the galley of, you

Kim Clark: 00:11:49

know, does anyone need Spanish, but it was only limited to

Kim Clark: 00:11:53

Spanish speaking, there wasn't an opportunity to have various

Kim Clark: 00:11:58

languages available. So I, I've seen it in that kind of legal

Kim Clark: 00:12:03

setting, but it's not nearly enough. And, and, you know, like

Kim Clark: 00:12:09

we were saying we were really depending on the wrong people to

Kim Clark: 00:12:12

do the job for us and need to be more thoughtful and strategic

Kim Clark: 00:12:16

and forward thinking about this. So what are some forward

Kim Clark: 00:12:19

thinking innovative approaches or technologies that have been

Kim Clark: 00:12:23

successful in improving language access for individuals with

Kim Clark: 00:12:27

limited English proficiency?

Unknown: 00:12:29

Well, there is a ton of technology today that allows you

Unknown: 00:12:33

to do you know, machine translation and to interpret,

Unknown: 00:12:40

for example, remotely, they there is artificial intelligence

Unknown: 00:12:45

that will help with that. But really what what I think is more

Unknown: 00:12:50

innovative is that we start recognizing, going back to the

Unknown: 00:12:54

basics and recognizing the profession of interpreting and

Unknown: 00:12:58

the profession of translating, because those tools that that we

Unknown: 00:13:02

have through AI and technology are not enough or are not

Unknown: 00:13:08

sufficient, unless there is a linguist behind it, because

Unknown: 00:13:11

there are all sorts of potential errors that can occur if we just

Unknown: 00:13:17

let the machine do that job. So there's a lot of innovation in

Unknown: 00:13:20

the language language field and I'm not a tech person to really

Unknown: 00:13:24

go into that. But suffice it to say that what what really is

Unknown: 00:13:28

innovative, innovative is how we approach this how do we use this

Unknown: 00:13:32

technology for the better many of those people that don't speak

Unknown: 00:13:36

English, right? For example, today, if you had if you were to

Unknown: 00:13:41

develop a really robust language access plan, you could offer

Unknown: 00:13:45

technically 24/7 access to interpret professional

Unknown: 00:13:48

interpretation services right, you could perhaps turn around a

Unknown: 00:13:53

translation faster than before a translation that has been

Unknown: 00:13:57

reviewed by a linguist right and why can we do it faster because

Unknown: 00:14:01

we can use methods to do it some to implement some automatic

Unknown: 00:14:08

optimization with translation for example. So the technology

Unknown: 00:14:12

is there the professionals are there is how do we connect this

Unknown: 00:14:16

and how we have that mind shift in terms of how we approach

Unknown: 00:14:20

these professionals and this technology successfully and

Unknown: 00:14:23

effectively.

Kim Clark: 00:14:25

You know, I've been doing a number of webinars

Kim Clark: 00:14:27

talking about AI and di communication so you know, the

Kim Clark: 00:14:32

the tax the lip, the visuals, the videos, but especially the

Kim Clark: 00:14:36

tax when you put something in like chat GPT for example,

Kim Clark: 00:14:40

you'll see the bias you'll see the sexism if you are skilled in

Kim Clark: 00:14:45

di communications and know what to look for. Some for some of

Kim Clark: 00:14:50

us, there can be an improvement of inclusive communications, but

Kim Clark: 00:14:53

for the most part, I think AI is really reflecting to us because

Kim Clark: 00:14:57

it's taking what's already out there. that that human element

Kim Clark: 00:15:02

is absolutely credible, you know, critical in looking

Kim Clark: 00:15:07

through this kind of language that's being spent, I think it's

Kim Clark: 00:15:09

a mirror of like crap. Is that how we're talking about that? Is

Kim Clark: 00:15:13

that what we're saying? And it's really missing the point. And we

Kim Clark: 00:15:16

should really take that reflection very seriously and

Kim Clark: 00:15:19

say, Wow, we need to teach these datasets and teach ourselves on

Kim Clark: 00:15:24

how to be more inclusive, to avoid, you know, the bias that

Kim Clark: 00:15:28

is inherent in these datasets that's in AI right now. And so

Kim Clark: 00:15:33

let me ask you about, let's just kind of level up and talk about

Kim Clark: 00:15:36

some legislation like where, what is that? Where is

Kim Clark: 00:15:40

legislation? And what role does it play in promoting language

Kim Clark: 00:15:43

access? And are you aware of any specific laws or policies that

Kim Clark: 00:15:47

have a significant impact?

Unknown: 00:15:49

Absolutely. And that's such an important question came

Unknown: 00:15:53

because we, we talk about the civil rights and advocacy and

Unknown: 00:15:58

all that is, especially in the diversity, equity, inclusion and

Unknown: 00:16:03

belonging space. And but we all know about, for example, how the

Unknown: 00:16:09

title six of the Civil Rights Act protect people that don't

Unknown: 00:16:12

speak English, it says that nobody should be discriminated

Unknown: 00:16:16

on the basis of race, sex, or national origin. And national

Unknown: 00:16:21

origin is a proxy for for language. So in any kind of

Unknown: 00:16:26

program that receives federal funding, they should have

Unknown: 00:16:31

language access a language access plan, because they should

Unknown: 00:16:35

not discriminate on the basis of national origin. And I think

Unknown: 00:16:39

more and more people are raising their awareness about

Unknown: 00:16:45

complaining when they are not receiving effective

Unknown: 00:16:48

communication or interpretation services or translators,

Unknown: 00:16:51

translation services. And they can call that discrimination

Unknown: 00:16:55

based on national origin. So title six is perhaps the biggest

Unknown: 00:16:59

piece of legislation that we have. But there is also

Unknown: 00:17:03

executive order 13166, that was signed by President Clinton in

Unknown: 00:17:08

the 2000s, which also talks about meaningful access. So it

Unknown: 00:17:13

tells organizations, again, that receive federal funding, how to

Unknown: 00:17:18

create this language access plan on how to approach a language

Unknown: 00:17:21

access plan. So for example, if you are a hospital and you live

Unknown: 00:17:25

in a community, where a lot of people from China or a lot of

Unknown: 00:17:30

speak Chinese speaking people live there, then a it is likely

Unknown: 00:17:35

that for you hospital, because you are providing a critical

Unknown: 00:17:38

service and you're the community that you serve a speaks Chinese

Unknown: 00:17:43

is likely that for you meaningful service means having

Unknown: 00:17:48

a interpreters on staff that are Chinese interpreters, or that

Unknown: 00:17:54

your documentation and signage is in Chinese, for example. So

Unknown: 00:18:00

that's what Executive Order helps with, it tells for

Unknown: 00:18:04

example, and the the responsibility is different

Unknown: 00:18:07

depending on the type of services that you provide. So if

Unknown: 00:18:09

you are a zoo, for example, yes, you receive federal funds, but

Unknown: 00:18:13

maybe your the service that you're providing is not as

Unknown: 00:18:16

critical as that of a hospital. So maybe for you meaningful

Unknown: 00:18:19

access means having all the brochures translated. So these

Unknown: 00:18:23

are two very important pieces of legislation, but there is also

Unknown: 00:18:26

some state legislation that address health care as well. And

Unknown: 00:18:32

there is one that is the class standards there is there is a

Unknown: 00:18:36

culturally and linguistically appropriate standards that are

Unknown: 00:18:41

specifically for health care, that tells you about how to

Unknown: 00:18:45

provide effective language access also, how to consider the

Unknown: 00:18:51

the proficiency of the professionals doing the language

Unknown: 00:18:56

axis, right because this is another issue is that people

Unknown: 00:18:59

tend to think they are fluent without ever having a taking a

Unknown: 00:19:06

test on their fluency on the other language and they are no

Unknown: 00:19:09

oh yeah, no, this this person understands because they are

Unknown: 00:19:11

nodding, as I said earlier, or Yeah, I speak enough French to

Unknown: 00:19:16

get by. And CLAS Standards is very specific about the says

Unknown: 00:19:20

like, you know, you need to assess the language skills of

Unknown: 00:19:24

the people serving the multilingual population. So

Unknown: 00:19:27

during these three pieces of legislation add key for for

Unknown: 00:19:34

people working in, in public services, but again, when we

Unknown: 00:19:40

talk about courts is a little different. And when we talk

Unknown: 00:19:43

about schools, schools is a little different but title so

Unknown: 00:19:46

title six is the like umbrella piece of legislation that we

Unknown: 00:19:49

have to keep in mind whenever we think about non discriminating

Unknown: 00:19:53

on the basis of language.

Kim Clark: 00:19:55

Okay, all right, let's get into the ethics of

Kim Clark: 00:19:59

law. language access. So what are these ethical considerations

Kim Clark: 00:20:04

that language access providers and organizations should be

Kim Clark: 00:20:08

mindful of when we're offering translation or interpretation

Kim Clark: 00:20:12

services? Like what are we? What are the questions that we ask

Kim Clark: 00:20:16

what do we need to look for? And what kind of feedback do we need

Kim Clark: 00:20:19

to hear to make sure that we are creating that connection through

Kim Clark: 00:20:23

language access,

Unknown: 00:20:24

the first thing really, is to stop using children and

Unknown: 00:20:27

family member to interpret for to make your job easier, right?

Unknown: 00:20:31

If you are, and I see this, over and over and over professional

Unknown: 00:20:36

lawyers telling me like, oh, I don't need to implement language

Unknown: 00:20:39

X is because the page, the person, the client will come

Unknown: 00:20:44

with their child and the child is bilingual. And that is their

Unknown: 00:20:47

language access plan. That is highly unethical. For the

Unknown: 00:20:50

reasons we explained before. They are minors, they this is a

Unknown: 00:20:53

professional word where, you know, we're basically under

Unknown: 00:20:56

employing this child. And also the the type of vocabulary that

Unknown: 00:21:01

they might be using could be quite complex. So that's the one

Unknown: 00:21:05

thing and I really will leave that as the main thing, because

Unknown: 00:21:08

there are several ethical consideration. But that, to me,

Unknown: 00:21:10

is the most important one. There was actually a film released a

Unknown: 00:21:14

few weeks ago, I posted in LinkedIn on children working as

Unknown: 00:21:18

interpreters. And I was baffled to know that, that these

Unknown: 00:21:23

practices are rampant. So I think that if we achieved that,

Unknown: 00:21:27

if we were able to remove children from the equation, we

Unknown: 00:21:30

are going to be in very good shape to even open up to all the

Unknown: 00:21:35

other ethical considerations that language axes have.

Kim Clark: 00:21:39

I'm also thinking about sometimes when I've been

Kim Clark: 00:21:42

in corporate environments, there's been a bias towards

Kim Clark: 00:21:46

people who don't have English as their first language, when it

Kim Clark: 00:21:49

comes to equating that with less intelligence, and other kinds of

Kim Clark: 00:21:54

bias that can show up when somebody comes from another

Kim Clark: 00:21:58

country. And they're a doctor in their country, and they come

Kim Clark: 00:22:00

here, but they're not able to be a doctor here, there's this

Kim Clark: 00:22:03

assumption, that they are that there's an you know, there's a

Kim Clark: 00:22:07

judgement, because they don't know English, but you put me in

Kim Clark: 00:22:11

the middle of, you know, Japan, I'm not going to be successful,

Kim Clark: 00:22:15

you know. And I may be, you know, judged for my intellectual

Kim Clark: 00:22:20

value, because I'm not able to speak the language there. You

Kim Clark: 00:22:24

know, there's, there's a lot of impact and bias that that plays

Kim Clark: 00:22:27

into it. Just people with accents. There's, there's

Kim Clark: 00:22:31

reports that I've shared in some of the trainings or workshops

Kim Clark: 00:22:34

when I work with clients, and is really talking about the the

Kim Clark: 00:22:37

bias of accents, and how many people I have met who have

Kim Clark: 00:22:41

forcibly removed their accent in the workplace in order to not

Kim Clark: 00:22:47

have harassment, jokes, discrimination, because it

Kim Clark: 00:22:51

becomes while there's the diversity, and there may be

Kim Clark: 00:22:55

accents, or somebody doesn't have English as their first

Kim Clark: 00:22:59

language, then it turns into a non inclusive situation. And

Kim Clark: 00:23:03

then it creates an inequitable situation where that person

Kim Clark: 00:23:07

isn't necessarily understood as well. So they don't get the

Kim Clark: 00:23:10

promotions, they don't get the new projects, they don't get the

Kim Clark: 00:23:14

kind of access and opportunities that somebody else does. So

Kim Clark: 00:23:18

that's something that we really have to consider as colleagues

Kim Clark: 00:23:21

when we're working with with teammates, and trying to find

Kim Clark: 00:23:25

some, some more common ground and meeting people where they

Kim Clark: 00:23:29

are. I often talk about inclusive communications. And

Kim Clark: 00:23:34

when we are using inclusive communications, which should be

Kim Clark: 00:23:37

standard in all of our communications, that we don't

Kim Clark: 00:23:41

use acronyms, for example, or colloquialisms, you know, within

Kim Clark: 00:23:46

the United States, that doesn't make sense to somebody that that

Kim Clark: 00:23:49

came from or, or is currently in South Korea. So we're leaving

Kim Clark: 00:23:54

people out, you know, and that's one part that as professional

Kim Clark: 00:23:57

communicators, we need to be thinking about as far as

Kim Clark: 00:24:00

language access. Now, let's talk about how language access

Kim Clark: 00:24:05

actually relates to economic growth and development, both

Kim Clark: 00:24:09

locally and globally, globally. So how does language access

Kim Clark: 00:24:14

services contribute?

Unknown: 00:24:17

Well, there is a plethora of answers to this. But

Unknown: 00:24:22

of course, it would facilitate international trade because we

Unknown: 00:24:25

have a globalized economy and businesses are going to engage

Unknown: 00:24:29

in cross border transactions and negotiations, where there is

Unknown: 00:24:32

language access provided, right and perhaps we don't have as

Unknown: 00:24:36

much as a problem when there is commerce in the middle because

Unknown: 00:24:41

they always think about communicating effectively and,

Unknown: 00:24:44

you know, interpreters that working in that field, they

Unknown: 00:24:49

don't have a shortage, shortage of work, right. So it's going to

Unknown: 00:24:53

be so we the changes that we need to to make there is just

Unknown: 00:24:58

that in our Local communities or in our smaller business, we

Unknown: 00:25:03

could expand our businesses and make them grow. If we were to

Unknown: 00:25:08

translate our websites, if we were to offer language taxes as

Unknown: 00:25:12

part of our daily routines, so we don't have to only accept or

Unknown: 00:25:18

receive clients from the US, we can actually have clients from

Unknown: 00:25:21

all over the world. And that speaking all sorts of languages.

Unknown: 00:25:25

I think I've mentioned this story to you in a past

Unknown: 00:25:28

conversation about how this lady told me like, you know, what, if

Unknown: 00:25:33

somebody is going to come to my shop, they need to speak

Unknown: 00:25:35

English? And I say, Well, are you sure about that? Because

Unknown: 00:25:40

Because your work might require that a at some point you you

Unknown: 00:25:44

have language that you that you bridge the gap in the language

Unknown: 00:25:49

and say not impossible, I don't think I don't think that's ever

Unknown: 00:25:52

going to happen, because I hire people, that managers for for

Unknown: 00:25:57

large companies and all that. So I asked you, so if a company

Unknown: 00:26:00

from Spain, came to you and ask you, okay, you are really good

Unknown: 00:26:06

about hiring the right talent, I need you to hire talent in

Unknown: 00:26:10

Spain. So you couldn't say yes, because you don't have, you

Unknown: 00:26:14

haven't planned for that. So you see what I mean, you can you can

Unknown: 00:26:18

open yourself to a lot more opportunities if you open the

Unknown: 00:26:23

language access speaker in a way. So you can also attract

Unknown: 00:26:27

foreign investment. Enhance? Well, if you, for example, have

Unknown: 00:26:33

tourism company, if you have language access, for example, we

Unknown: 00:26:37

actually have clients that in the tourism industry, that

Unknown: 00:26:41

connect to our 24/7 services, because they want to attract

Unknown: 00:26:46

people that not only speak English, but to speak a bunch of

Unknown: 00:26:50

languages. So there are many, many ways to expand and grow

Unknown: 00:26:54

economically with successful language access plan.

Kim Clark: 00:26:58

Carol, I was working with a client who had a similar

Kim Clark: 00:27:01

situation, they're trying to attract more diverse talent or

Kim Clark: 00:27:04

very being very intentional about that. And they realized

Kim Clark: 00:27:07

that language was a barrier to attracting talent that they

Kim Clark: 00:27:13

needed and wanted, for example, they, they were starting to just

Kim Clark: 00:27:21

do straight translation of their communications. They weren't

Kim Clark: 00:27:24

taking into account the cultural nuance. They weren't taking into

Kim Clark: 00:27:28

account context. And they weren't understanding at first

Kim Clark: 00:27:34

that it's not a straight translation from English to

Kim Clark: 00:27:37

whatever. Let's let's, let's go back to South Korea. So a Korean

Kim Clark: 00:27:43

language that there is not as it's not a one to one, you know,

Kim Clark: 00:27:47

straight translation, there has to be nuanced. There has to be

Kim Clark: 00:27:50

context, for example, and it doesn't even have to be for

Kim Clark: 00:27:53

employees who are located in other countries, it could be

Kim Clark: 00:27:56

people who have come from those countries to the US, that are

Kim Clark: 00:27:59

now a part of your employee base. And they, they they don't

Kim Clark: 00:28:03

understand they don't know, in this particular example, it was

Kim Clark: 00:28:07

a client who was sharing health benefits, and it was about open

Kim Clark: 00:28:11

enrollment and how what they what they didn't take into

Kim Clark: 00:28:14

account is that they don't actually there's a part of their

Kim Clark: 00:28:17

population that doesn't understand how health care works

Kim Clark: 00:28:21

in the United States. It's different, you know, in the

Kim Clark: 00:28:23

country, their their country of origin. And so there's so just

Kim Clark: 00:28:28

straight saying, Okay, here's open enrollment, and here's

Kim Clark: 00:28:30

what's going on and communicating that was it just,

Kim Clark: 00:28:35

it really harmed, you know, parts of their employee

Kim Clark: 00:28:39

population that didn't understand the context, and the

Kim Clark: 00:28:45

nuance of an understanding the cultural, so there needs to be

Kim Clark: 00:28:48

that human element, there needs to be that kind of level of

Kim Clark: 00:28:51

getting, keeping in mind that the objective of communications

Kim Clark: 00:28:54

is connection, and what will that take, and it's not always

Kim Clark: 00:28:57

just the translation, but that, you know, to your point can

Kim Clark: 00:29:01

bring in more of a diverse talent pool if we are very

Kim Clark: 00:29:05

thoughtful and strategic and resource language access

Kim Clark: 00:29:09

adequately. So I've got a couple more questions for you. What

Kim Clark: 00:29:13

steps can individuals and communities and companies and

Kim Clark: 00:29:16

organizations take to promote awareness and support for

Kim Clark: 00:29:20

language access initiatives?

Unknown: 00:29:23

Well, before before, I just wanted to comment on

Unknown: 00:29:27

something that you said that I think is very, very, very

Unknown: 00:29:30

important, and that is the human element for connection. You will

Unknown: 00:29:35

never replace humans when it comes to language, no matter how

Unknown: 00:29:38

advanced the large, large language models are. I work in

Unknown: 00:29:44

this industry and that that's the constant fear and for over

Unknown: 00:29:47

30 years, we have seen that technology AI helps us advance

Unknown: 00:29:52

and have more of translation and interpretation. But it's not

Unknown: 00:29:56

replacing humans I don't think that's ever going to happen is

Unknown: 00:30:00

Gonna perhaps make it more productive, etc. Now answering

Unknown: 00:30:03

to your questions, the steps that individuals, communities

Unknown: 00:30:07

and institutions can take to promote awareness. The first is

Unknown: 00:30:11

educate, and advocate, I think raising awareness about the

Unknown: 00:30:15

importance of language access, it's key, there are well, there

Unknown: 00:30:19

is a training, for example, that I offer, just changing the level

Unknown: 00:30:24

of consciousness that you have around language access. So this

Unknown: 00:30:27

educational piece is key. Then collaborating with a language

Unknown: 00:30:33

services providers, have them sort of as one main provider

Unknown: 00:30:40

that you have, right? If you're a company, and you want to make

Unknown: 00:30:43

sure that you are actually accessible and inclusive, and

Unknown: 00:30:48

you have to support diversity, equity and inclusion policies,

Unknown: 00:30:51

but to the people that you serve, then they create a

Unknown: 00:30:54

partnership with a language services provider. I think those

Unknown: 00:30:59

two are a and then create policies internally. Okay, what

Unknown: 00:31:03

do we do when the population that doesn't speak English,

Unknown: 00:31:07

approach our business? Because I think a lot of people or or

Unknown: 00:31:10

businesses don't even have this question, or they dismiss the

Unknown: 00:31:14

few times that people have approached them. And they don't

Unknown: 00:31:17

speak English. They're like, I don't know, because I don't have

Unknown: 00:31:20

enough of it. So create a language access policy internal,

Unknown: 00:31:24

internally to you, I think those are key elements.

Kim Clark: 00:31:27

Yeah, that's an excellent point. And as a

Kim Clark: 00:31:30

reminder, you don't have to be a global organization to have

Kim Clark: 00:31:33

these language access policies. So there are trades that attract

Kim Clark: 00:31:39

multilingual folks, and they could be domestic based, they

Kim Clark: 00:31:42

could be US based, I should say. And so you know, so it's just

Kim Clark: 00:31:47

look at your employee population, and get it get a

Kim Clark: 00:31:50

demographic understanding and a psychographic understanding of

Kim Clark: 00:31:54

what languages are spoken there. And you got to resource that in

Kim Clark: 00:31:58

I love I love, you know, the the recommendation, you got to put a

Kim Clark: 00:32:02

language access policy in place. And so when we're working on

Kim Clark: 00:32:05

diversity, equity inclusion, whether we are, you know, US

Kim Clark: 00:32:09

based or in English, primarily based country, we don't have to

Kim Clark: 00:32:16

be globalized in order to, you know, to have this policy in

Kim Clark: 00:32:19

place when you're a global organization 1,000% You need to

Kim Clark: 00:32:22

have this policy and policies get funded. So I think it's that

Kim Clark: 00:32:27

is such a huge point. And that brings us home to the question

Kim Clark: 00:32:31

that I asked every guest What does communicating like a give a

Kim Clark: 00:32:36

damn, sound like look like feel like when come when it when

Kim Clark: 00:32:41

we're talking about language access, I think this is kind of

Kim Clark: 00:32:44

a homerun for you.

Unknown: 00:32:47

Well, if you are having any trouble understanding

Unknown: 00:32:50

yourself, because required remember that a and I have this

Unknown: 00:32:54

tendency to speak Spanish. Remember that language access is

Unknown: 00:32:56

not only so that they access you, but that you access them.

Unknown: 00:33:00

So if you really want to communicate like Eva, then

Unknown: 00:33:03

remember your part of the equation as well. So if you are

Unknown: 00:33:05

not understanding, write, be humble and request an

Unknown: 00:33:09

interpreter yourself for your own sake. And that way, you

Unknown: 00:33:13

don't have to put the onus on the person that doesn't speak

Unknown: 00:33:15

English, but perhaps they speak some English, but you prefer to

Unknown: 00:33:18

speak in a language they can understand. And you also want to

Unknown: 00:33:21

understand what they're trying to communicate. So get an

Unknown: 00:33:23

interpreter for yourself, change little little points of your

Unknown: 00:33:29

thinking to really expand it, I think. So. If you want to

Unknown: 00:33:33

communicate like you've ever done, consider yourself part of

Unknown: 00:33:36

the equation, get an interpreter for yourself as well, when you

Unknown: 00:33:39

need it.

Kim Clark: 00:33:40

Language Access is core to diversity, equity and

Kim Clark: 00:33:43

inclusion communications. I can't stress that enough. So

Kim Clark: 00:33:47

Carol, what is your company do? What kind of services do you

Kim Clark: 00:33:50

offer? And how can people find you follow you, etc.

Unknown: 00:33:54

Thank you, Kim. We provide a broad range of

Unknown: 00:33:58

language services, including interpretation in over 200

Unknown: 00:34:02

languages, remote and in person, for conferences and for

Unknown: 00:34:06

healthcare appointments also for the legal appointments. And we

Unknown: 00:34:12

also provide translation of documents in over 200 languages,

Unknown: 00:34:15

we do transcreation, which is something very interesting you

Unknown: 00:34:19

you for example, write a story a children's story that you want

Unknown: 00:34:23

to convey in other countries with their cultural nuances, so

Unknown: 00:34:26

somebody has to recreate it in that culture. And finally, I

Unknown: 00:34:30

provide training to companies on language access companies that

Unknown: 00:34:36

want to expand their knowledge in diversity, equity and

Unknown: 00:34:39

inclusion. Hire me to train their their employees on

Unknown: 00:34:44

language access specifically, and they can find me in www dot

Unknown: 00:34:50

equal access language. services.com is a nice name

Unknown: 00:34:54

because we are we're all about equal access. Language Services

Unknown: 00:34:59

is a long name by This it defines what we do. And, yes, we

Unknown: 00:35:04

look forward to having people connecting and download our free

Unknown: 00:35:08

resources. We have a ton of resources for free like podcast

Unknown: 00:35:12

with information on the laws and regulations, and also written

Unknown: 00:35:16

material on that that they can simply download from our

Unknown: 00:35:19

website.

Kim Clark: 00:35:20

Excellent. Carol, thank you for providing this

Kim Clark: 00:35:23

service. And thank you for teaching us communicators what

Kim Clark: 00:35:27

we need to be doing and prioritizing language access as

Kim Clark: 00:35:30

part of our dei work. Thank you so much

Unknown: 00:35:33

for having me. I am really excited that we're

Unknown: 00:35:36

working together and yes, good luck with everything.

Kim Clark: 00:35:40

All right. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you next

Kim Clark: 00:35:42

time.