JOB AID: Obtaining Live Interpretation Services

Prepared by Kate Szrom, COAD Coordinator, City of Portland, September 2023

City employees are required by federal civil rights law and city policy to provide equal access to our events in languages other than English. A community member can request interpretation at any public event PBEM is hosting.

To get started, we recommend reviewing the City of Portland Language Access page.

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Planning for Interpretation

City policy uses a justice and anti-discrimination approach to language access. We should proactively plan for providing interpretation and translation and budget for these expenses.

You can:

• Refer to the City of Portland Language List;
• Ask community partners what languages would best serve them at an event;
• Look up the map of languages spoken in the census tract where the event will take place.

Include the Meaningful Access Statement

The Meaningful Access Statement must be included on the flyer and on the registration page.

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How to Arrange Interpretation

There are several interpretation companies registered as city vendors. You may use any professional interpretation company that is culturally appropriate for your event.

Verbio (dba Oregon Translations)

Verbio has a price agreement with the City of Portland, so you do not have to collect multiple quotes in a bid process or be concerned about a spending limit. For online events, Verbio is the more likely to find an interpreter on short notice.

Language Line

Language Line can be used in an urgent situation, such an event interpreter calling out sick. When requesting urgent interpretation services from Language Line reference City Price Agreement #31000635.  Once services have been rendered, email approved invoice directly to CSD Procurement and state “ok to pay” in the body of the email so they can process the invoice for payment.

How to Prepare for Interpretation

Share any materials, presenter slides, and event information that could help the interpreter prepare for the subject matter at your event.

Contact the community member who requested interpretation to let them know there will be an interpreter at the event for them. If you proactively scheduled interpretation, advertise it on your event flyer, zoom registration page, etc.!

Zoom events: You must set up Zoom for interpretation before the event starts AND assign interpreters once you start the event.  

How to Set Up Zoom for Interpretation

How to Assign Interpreters in Zoom

Day of the event

Allow 15-30 minutes before your event starts to meet with the interpreter and go over any questions they might have.

Simultaneous Interpretation - Used in Zoom with interpretation channels or at an in-person event with interpretation headsets. The interpreter is listening to the speaker and quickly interpreting at the same time. The English speaker should speak slowly and take pauses to allow the interpreter to work at a reasonable pace.

Side by Side Interpretation - This is for an online in-person event for which there’s no technology to have the interpreter speak simultaneously. The English speaker should speak a few sentences of their presentation and then wait for the interpreter to interpret.

What if no one shows up?

Things happen and sometimes the community member for whom you arranged interpretation cannot come to the event. Please be gracious in this situation and remember that as English speakers, we get to attend or cancel at the last minute whenever we choose.

If you are worried about an investment in interpretation being wasted, consider recording the event in-person or on Zoom. Zoom now (finally!) automatically records all language interpretation channels, so the event video can easily be posted to Vimeo with the audio in English and other languages.

What about Google Translate?

Google Translate does not meet the city’s standards for providing equal language access. Google Translate, or any other “machine translation” should never be used to translate a document for the public, especially if there is any health and safety information in that document.

If there is an urgent need to communicate a short message, such as emailing a community member to tell them there will be interpretation at the event, try the following:

• Write the email in English, using as plain language as possible: DO NOT WRITE “We are happy to inform you that we can provide interpretation at our scheduled event.” DO WRITE: “There will be a Spanish interpreter at the event tomorrow, Tuesday, August 18 at 9 am.”
• Translate the English using DeepL or Google Translate, and copy that translation into the email, keeping the original English in the email.

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Examples

Earthquake Preparedness in Vietnamese with APANO

APANO requested Earthquake Preparedness in Vietnamese for an in-person event they wanted to host with their Vietnamese community health programs. We booked an interpreter through PASA Language Solutions, a local company that APANO uses for their events.

We edited the Earthquake Prep slides for simplicity and sent them to PASA so that the interpreter could review the specialized language in the presentation (Cascadia earthquake, water purification, etc.)

We also had PASA translate the slide text (19 sentences) so that the presentation slides could be presented in English and Vietnamese (see picture right).

We set up the event with PBEM’s interpretation headset kit (stored in 210) but found that there was some interference and people couldn’t hear. So we switched to side-by-side interpretation. I think it made the presentation even better because I had to really think about what I was saying and not ramble on. 🙂

Heat First Aid for Community Organizations in English and Spanish

A community member requested Spanish two days before a webinar training on Heat First Aid for Community Organizations. During the webinar, the community member had technical problems and could not join. Since the webinar was recorded, it was uploaded to Vimeo with Spanish audio and the link was sent to the community member by email. They were able to watch it after the event.