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Intercultural Practice and Equity · Public-service practice
Interpretation is live, translation takes time, and both have to be in the budget before they can be in the room. Four lessons ending with a language-access plan for one real project or meeting.
40–45 minutes · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning
Interpretation, translation, signed communication and plain wording are not interchangeable. Knowing which one you need, and which part of it is settled, is where planning starts.
An empty request log is a fact about your request route, not about the people it never reached. Where the real evidence is, and whose knowledge you are missing.
What a professional needs in order to be accurate, why the shortcuts fail, and how a meeting or a document has to be arranged around the work rather than the other way round.
One page for one project or meeting: languages, decisions, money, calendar, limits, and what happens on the day when something was missed.
Take the next project or public meeting you are responsible for and fill in the one-page plan: languages covered, how you decided, who books interpretation, which documents are translated and reviewed, the budget line, the schedule point, what is not covered, and what happens on the day if someone arrives speaking a language nobody planned for.
Language access fails in predictable places, and almost none of them are the moment an interpreter opens their mouth. It fails in a budget written without a line for it, a schedule that puts translation in the final week, a notice offering help in a language the reader does not read, and a request log that looks empty because the request route was never usable. This module is about the planning that happens before any of that. It covers what language access actually includes, how to recognize a need without waiting for a request, how to work with interpreters and translators so their work can be accurate, and how to write a short plan for one project or meeting you are responsible for. The plan is the point; everything before it exists so the plan is worth writing.
Interpretation is live. Translation takes time. Neither one can be in the room if it was never in the budget.
Keep the plan, the timing and the working practices in view while you scope a project, book a meeting, or send a document for translation.
Fill in the eight-line plan for the next project or meeting on your calendar and send it to whoever controls its budget and its schedule.
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
The department's own information on interpreting, translation and language access for people who use DHS services; the starting point for what is currently arranged and who holds it.
The language assistance standards used in this module: offering language assistance at no cost, informing people it is available, using competent individuals and avoiding untrained people and minors, and providing easy-to-understand materials and signage.
U.S. Department of Justice guidance on Title II effective communication, qualified interpreters, auxiliary aids and services, companions, and primary consideration of the person's expressed preference.
Minnesota's state commission on communication access for people who are deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing, including interpreting quality and access to state services.
National code of ethics and standards of practice for interpreters, and guidance on working with interpreters that informs the preparation practices in Lesson 3.
Guidance on audience, organization, sentence structure and words to avoid; the basis for writing an English source that can be translated accurately.
Minnesota's advisory council on disability policy, access and rights, including communication access in state programs and public meetings.
The design reference for this curriculum: multiple ways to engage, culturally responsive materials, and accessible instruction without timed or scored interactions.