Arizona Will Soon Require Court Interpreters To Know Law.

Foreign language interpreters are now being subject to further their education beyond the boundaries of language interpretation. Arizona will soon require court interpreters to know the law, and this makes perfect sense. Having a clear and concise knowledge of the industry in which you are interpreting for is paramount for a successful scheduled courtroom interpretation.

There are many cases where a slight miscommunication has had detrimental effects, and we have spoken about some of them in previous posts. In this blog post, one simple misused word led to the defendant thinking he had done much worse than a traffic violation. Here is another article, in this situation, the scheduled phone interpreter misinterpreted, and what was a bleed in the brain was treated as a drug overdose. Arizona requiring their interpreters to gain a further understanding of law is a great thing, peoples lives are on the line and no chances should be taken.

The Arizona Supreme Court recently announced it will require all 100 interpreters on staff and the 500 more who are contracted throughout the state to go through a credentialing program by 2019. The goal is to ensure they all meet a baseline knowledge of not only interpreting skills but also of the legal concepts and ethics that guide their work.

So what does this mean for language service providers (LSPs)? It shouldn’t mean too much of a change in their operations provided they have a dynamic intelligent system in place to cope with the changes in compliance. Interpreters will now have to get further education and receive the correct credentials to allow them to be eligible to interpret in a court hearing. LSPs using a system like Interpreter Intelligence can just edit their HR and compliance requirements with the option to attach a photo/scan of a certificate, then once this requirement is met, interpreters will be able to see the jobs as normal and not much will have changed from the LSPs day to day operations.

If you’re interested in learning more about Interpreter Intelligence’s industry-leading Scheduling Software or our VRI software in development we’d love to discuss how we can help you transform your business by contacting our support team.

How an online scheduling software can increase your organization’s efficiency.

One of the main reasons why an agency would adopt an interpreter scheduling software would be to increase their efficiency. Efficiency is crucial for saving time, money, increasing employee productivity and increase the quality of service you provide. Below are just 3 of the features that Interpreter Intelligence provides that can increase the level of efficiency in the organization that uses our scheduling software.

Provide staff members with their own user profile.

With each internal user having their own profile, they can login using their own credentials. From here they can create a booking, assign an interpreter to a job, manage and edit existing bookings already on the system if a booking needs to be altered.  This would result in the agency staff becoming more efficient with less time switching between booking calendars and contact lists, everything is in one place at their fingertips.

Easily Manage Bookings.

Manage all your bookings past, present and future from an easy to use, consistent interface. Quickly review those bookings that need any follow up. You can easily address any problems with future bookings before they escalate. Booking coordinators can quickly review the bookings under their management. Once there has been a significant change to a booking, all relevant people are automatically notified of the change, be it a change of location or time of the appointment.

Calculate travel time and mileage.

A big factor when choosing an interpreter is the distance they have to travel to get to the appointment location. With agencies who pay for mileage, this is crucial. An interpreter who is too far away will cost too much for the agency. Interpreter Intelligence calculates the distance an interpreter is from a booking and then displays that distance to the assign interpreter screen. An internal user from the company can set a radius to only find interpreters within a certain distance. This can have massive benefits for the agency by reducing the cost of travel while also saving the agency time as now the internal staff do not need to calculate each interpreter individually.

Using an online scheduling system like Interpreter Intelligence can have profound effects on your organization’s efficiency. In an article by businessdictionary.com, they go on to explain how the use of technology can maximize your organization’s efficiency and this couldn’t be more true. We are constantly striving to improve our software to optimize our customers’ use of its features. Please always feel free to leave us product improvement suggestions by contacting our support team.

Technology plays a great role in courtroom interpretation!

Technology plays a vital role in today’s courtrooms. This is especially relevant in Utica where there are more than 50 languages spoken. Having such a diverse language span, sometimes language service providers are unable to provide a simultaneous interpreter in person. So this means the courts have to turn to technology, which is a good thing, however, the platform they are using is off the mark completely.

While researching this topic, I came across an article where, Michael Klein, district executive for the Fifth Judicial District Court of New York State said, “We use remote interpreting through Skype”. In the same article, Tony Colon, a Spanish interpreter said “Judges don’t like it and it’s a very difficult scenario,” he said. “When you’re going to the city court here in Utica you’ll see the screen set up for Skype.” Not only is this method unprofessional but using a third party software that is not specifically designed for a scheduled court interpretation could have some serious security ramifications.

Within the same article, Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees Executive Director Shelly Callahan said that “We’re seeing growth in video interpretation,” and that Medical Video Interpretation used to be the main scheduled appointment type but in recent times courtroom interpretation is certainly growing. So now is the time for Utica courts to adopt an interpreter schedule software that supports video remote interpreting (VRI), this way they are efficiently managing their interpreters, while also using a platform specially designed for courtroom interpreting.

An interpreter scheduling software is what these courts and other courts in similar circumstances or with similar requirements could greatly benefit from. There are between 800 and 1,000 scheduled interpretation appointments per month, both simultaneous and video. With Skype being used it is very easy for the language service providers to lose track and mismanage all the scheduled appointments and list of interpreters.

Also, another feature that Utica could benefit from is Interpreter Intelligence’s feature of calculating mileage, as it says in this article, “if it isn’t possible for interpreters to travel to the area for a legal proceeding, video interpretation is a tool that cuts down on transportation costs.” If cutting costs is a factor in deciding on an interpreter, then Interpreter Intelligence is the solution. If there are no interpreters within a select distance, then the interpreters group within the court or the language service providers can choose our (soon to be released) VRI option instead.

If you’re interested in learning more about Interpreter Intelligence’s industry-leading Scheduling Software or our VRI software in development we’d love to discuss how we can help you transform your business by contacting our support team.

5 Multilingual Celebrities That Might Surprise You!

Being in the language access industry we often only think of the importance of providing limited English speakers, deaf and hard of hearing patients with with access to healthcare, legal and government services through the use of interpreters.

Once we take some time to look beyond the day to day necessities of language access it becomes apparent how diverse a society we live in. It amazes me the hidden polyglot talents that people possess. I’ve done some research and found a few notable celebrities that are multilingual, some of which will surprise you! Actors and actresses can be described as intellectual people, their ability to memorize and improvise massive scripts under extremely tight schedules proves to be a daunting task. However, many of the well-known actors and actresses gain recognition from their English-speaking roles in their movies and not their ability to speak another language. You might be surprised to learn that Mila Kunis’ first language is Russian and can speak it flawlessly! Let’s take a look at other bilingual celebrities.

Actress Sandra Bullock speaks fluent German. Her mother was a German opera singer and at the time her father met her while stationed in Nuremberg! In 2000 Bullock won a Bambi award which is the German equivalent to the Oscars. You can check out the video of her acceptance speech here!

Natalie Portman is quite the linguist. Not only is she fluent in Hebrew, she is also fluent in Spanish, German, Japanese and a little bit of French. Portman was born in Hershlag, Jerusalem but she moved to Washington D.C. in 1984 with her family due to her father’s medical training and career advancements. Check out this video of Portman speaking Hebrew in a few interviews.

One of my favorite actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, loves French, And he can speak it fluently too. And he even managed to fit in French classes into his busy class schedule while attending Columbia College. He felt that the French classes were more “interesting”. Have a look at this video of Gordon-Levitt in a French interview back in 2005.

Last and most certainly not least, Johnny Depp. Depp lived in Paris for over a decade with his former partner Vanessa Paradis. Not only are they both fluent in French, both of their children are bilingual also! This is quite impressive since Depp was born and raised in the United States.

It’s amazing to think that many gifted actors and actresses have such impressive hidden lingual talents. This was just a short list of my favorite actors and actresses, here is where you can find a larger list of bilingual celebrities. It’s safe to say that interpretation industry would get an influx of interpreters if there was ever a disaster to happen in the film industry!

The EU is going straight to the source!

The EU Court of Justice operates a substantial language access process. With over 600 lawyer-linguists staffed internally and managed by Directorate-General, the courts still outsource one-third of its translation and interpretation work to freelance translators and interpreters. So as of December 16th, 2016, the courts issued an invitation to bid for a new framework contract worth about €6 million. However, language service providers (LSPs) need not apply! With the EU Court of Justice running such a large operation, why would they want to take on the burden to manage it themselves? Going straight to the source and cutting out the middleman is a characteristic of cost cutting, however, certain precautions must be taken in order for these cost cuts to be worth this extra burden.

Now, this is all well and good for the EU courts, but they must adopt a system to effectively manage the direct relationship with these translators and interpreters. What was previously managed by the Language Service Providers (LSPs) must now be managed by the EU Court of Justice internally. To do so effectively they will need a system to manage the freelance translators and interpreters, ensure that approved linguists meet any compliance and certification requirements and have processes in place to streamline the accounts payable and accounts receivable. Interpreter Intelligence is a system that streamlines all of these processes and allows an organization to easily access and update all their customer and client information and centrally manage all their bookings in a single secure and convenient platform. The Intelligence Scheduling System is a system that has helped numerous organizations transform their scheduling activities while significantly improving the efficiencies of their businesses, either for existing businesses who have switched over, or new organizations starting off for the first time.

Upon learning about this, I cannot help but see the potential for the EU Court of Justice to struggle if they fail to take the correct steps in implementing the correct language provider management software. They should really take a step back and do a complete and comprehensive analysis of their needs before taking any action. The implementation of a system like Interpreter Intelligence would prove to be greatly beneficial as they undertake this huge transition. If you’re interested in learning more about Interpreter Intelligence’s industry-leading Intelligence Scheduling System, we’d love to discuss how we can help you transform your business.

What is Video Remote Interpreting and what are the main benefits of it?

VRI (Video Remote Interpreting) is a service that uses web cameras/video phones to deliver sign language and spoken language interpretation services. This type of interpretation is generally sought after to communicate where the parties involved are at different locations and require a sign language interpretation promptly. The popularity of VRI is growing and in an emergency situation when an interpreter cannot make it to the hospital or court in time, VRI is the next best affordable alternative.

VRI can reduce costs dramatically. In nearly every scenario, when compared to an interpreter arriving in person, VRI is considerably cheaper. With lower costs and the consumer being given access almost instantly to an interpreter, VRI is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

VRI allows to address the challenges of cultural sensitivities. Yes, a telephone interpretation can be very easy and casual, however, it does not take into consideration critical aspects such as body language, hand movements, and facial expressions. The risk of a misinterpretation is greatly increased when using audio only interpretation. Here is an example of such a case where a phone translator let to a mishap in a hospital, the doctor diagnosed him with a drug overdose when in fact he was suffering from a bleed in the brain. This misinterpretation resulted in the patient becoming a quadriplegic.

With the level of everyday technology now present in personal electronics, you don’t have to go far to find a laptop with a built-in microphone and camera. Having instant access to certified interpreters at your fingertips is one of the many benefits of VRI. In the past having a camera built into a laptop was a rare occurrence, this meant VRI would have struggled, but now with everyday technology having such features as standard, the hospital or court can schedule a VRI appointment on-demand and the interpreter can make the VRI appointment from their own home within minutes!

VRI will change the way last minute appointments happen. Here at Interpreter Intelligence, we are developing a user-friendly software that can prove to be very beneficial to all parties involved. Our platform will take quality and easy usability into consideration as VRI scheduled appointments need the highest of quality as we understand the implications of a misinterpretation. If you’re interested in learning more about Interpreter Intelligence’s industry-leading Scheduling System or our VRI software in development we’d love to discuss how we can help you transform your business by contacting our support team.

Top benefits to implementing an online scheduling software.

Managing an interpreter’s schedule at different locations and times is a daunting task. With your financials, interpreter’s information, client information and a list of upcoming unfilled jobs all being on separate platforms, it makes the whole process very difficult. Interpreter Intelligence was created to solve these issues and provide benefit to language service providers who struggle with the wide range of activities not located on a centralized platform. So here are some of the benefits that an interpreter management and online scheduling software can provide to your organization.

Access Anytime and Anywhere

With the software being based online, it doesn’t matter what computer you are using, your own URL will be provided to you so you can access it wherever and whenever you like, all you need is an internet connection. This also goes for the interpreters checking their own schedule to self-assign themselves a job or clients creating a new booking themselves. Interpreter Intelligence allows you to centrally manage all your bookings in a secure and convenient cloud-based solution. 

Time saver – Eliminating the back and forth

Another primary benefit of adopting an online scheduling software is that it increases your efficiency. For example, the interpreter’s availability is already set, so when you or your clients create a booking, an interpreter who is already willing to work can be offered the job directly and reduce the amount of time going back and forth trying to find a suitable time for everyone. Interpreter Intelligence’s ‘Employment Eligibility‘ feature is an example of a timesaving benefit, reducing the time going back and forth. Quickly determine whether the interpreter meets the criteria necessary to be eligible for assignment to a specific booking.

Gain insights from extensive on-demand reporting.

Implementing an online scheduling software that records as much data as Interpreter Intelligence would result in a huge benefit for the reporting aspect of your business. On the Interpreter Intelligence system, you can easily review statistical data about the state of your business on a periodic basis defined by you. Quickly see bookings broken down by language, customer, and activity spanning any duration. All data is readily exported in Excel of CSV format for further statistical analysis and sharing with customers.

Quicker lines of communication results in fewer unfulfilled bookings.

With many bookings coming in last minute, the level of urgency is critical when trying to fill that appointment. What is needed in this situation are fast points of contact. The agency needs to know who is available, who has the qualifications, who is within the distance the clients is willing to pay the mileage for and who is a preferred interpreter for that client. Last minute bookings fair very well in Interpreter Intelligence’s system as we cater for all these requirements and much more. 

As you can see, the implementation of an online scheduling system to manage your agencies interpreter appointments can provide benefit across all aspects of your interpreter scheduling business. Be it speed, flexibility, fewer unfulfilled appointments or accessibility to the system. If you found these aspects interesting be sure to check out our product features on our website or get in contact here if you want more information on what we can provide you.

Increases in efficiency for confirming appointments via SMS.

The ways in which mobile phones can be utilized have changed an astronomical amount in recent years. With massive advances in technology, this means the scope for SMS activity has dramatically increased. Managing interpreter schedules has now become a lot easier, with the ability for an interpreter to directly reply to an SMS offer, this will shorten the length of the confirmation process.

Directly communicating with interpreters via SMS will save time and company resources. This feature provides benefit across many levels of the organization. From a scheduler’s point of view, the number of unfulfilled bookings is greatly reduced. As a result of this feature, these risks are reduced and reflect positively on the organization.

 

With quicker paths of communication, this would lead to further benefit for the scheduler, the responses will come in as emails and the agency staff can then assign jobs or mark someone unavailable based on the response received. SMS offers and confirmations allow the scheduling staff to better utilize their time and this gives the interpreters more freedom to schedule their appointments. This convenience provided to both parties is a big pull factor to implement this feature.

Here at Interpreter Intelligence, we have incorporated this new feature to our product. As a prelude to allowing the interpreters to accept a job automatically via SMS, we have added support to forward any SMS replies to an email address of your choosing. We can configure this if / when you need it and it can forward the SMS to one or more emails of your choosing.

We hope you find this new feature useful should you decide to use it and don’t hesitate to contact us should you have any questions, issues or concerns at the support email address or by phone. Feel free to add any thoughts or comments you have below. We’d love to hear your feedback …

 

Our most recent product updates.

We hope that everyone had an amazing New Years.

Here are some of the newest features that were released in our recent product updates:

New Feature – Unfulfilled Reasons

Similar to the cancellation process, marking a job as unfulfilled will now require selecting a reason. Once the update is published, you will find a new tab called Unfulfilled Reasons under Admin – Company set of tabs.

Please set up at least one unfulfilled reason on Company level to continue using the Can’t Fulfill action on jobs. The Unfulfilled Reason field will also be included in Booking, Client, and Unfulfilled exports.

Date Sorting on Manage Jobs Screen

Previously, the jobs on pages under Manage Jobs menu were sorted descending by date, thus the jobs furthest out are displaying at the top. Now, the default sort order will be ascending to the furthest in the future, with jobs for today displaying at the top.

The jobs with past dates will thus be excluded from the default view. A new option to Clear Dates will be available in the date range filter to view all jobs.

New Features on Assign Interpreter Page

1. You can now access the full list of job options from the cog on the Assign Interpreter page.

2. If there was an override entered on the job quote, the job will now be flagged on the Assign page.

3. The different types of notes are now showing in the Job Summary section and can be edited directly from this page.

4. The Consumer Name is also showing in the Job Summary section and can be edited directly from this page.

We hope that these most recent product updates provide some benefit to you and your team members.

We are constantly striving to improve our software to optimize our customers’ use of its features. Please always feel free to leave us product improvement suggestions by contacting our support team.

How advances in technology are actually driving the demand for interpreters up and not down.

With advances in technology, people would think that interpreter and translator jobs would be at jeopardy, but actually,  this is not the case. Globalisation today is bigger than it has ever been. The huge multinational companies such as Apple and Facebook for examples are making big steps in innovation, which in fact is creating more of a demand for interpreters. An article by Rubric.com has outlined an interesting point that the need for hyperlocalized content is ever more relevant than before. If a potential customer is looking for content unique to their language, and they can’t find it, all they have to do is navigate to another app or site and find the content they are looking for, so it is imperative that companies have accurate languages and translations in order to avoid the loss of traffic from their service/website.

 

With such adverse consequences, any company would be foolish to trust an online translator application to convey their services in a different language. Not only can meanings get lost in translations, translator apps are unable to pick up on the cultural context. An interesting article by the BBC can show when translator apps are useful and when they are not. For the purpose of business situations, an experienced interpreter is required for the job to be done correctly.

Scheduling software has made leaps today for the placement of interpreters in business settings. Not only can companies contact agencies to schedule an interpreter, they can browse interpreters profiles, see their qualifications and availability and either bulk offer out a job to a list of chosen suitable candidates or specifically offer the job out to a particular interpreter.