The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2017 - 13

The non-ergonomic picture was similar
with respect to the workstation layout. In
most cases, the position of the computer
screen forced translators to bend their
necks to look up or to the side. Only
one translator had her keyboard flat on
the surface directly in front of her. Most
translators positioned the screen too far
away and had to stretch their arms to type
or bend their wrists because they had their
keyboard at an awkward angle. Half the
translators didn't have the documents they
were using positioned between the keyboard
and the computer screen, as recommended,
but instead had them at the side or between
themselves and the keyboard. In light of
these results, it's not surprising that the
most frequent health complaints reported
concerned the eyes (e.g., eyestrain or other
eye disorders), the shoulder, and the neck,
especially among those with relatively poor
physical ergonomics.

Ergonomics also touches on
cognitive aspects.
One-quarter of the workplaces visited
were much noisier than recommended
(i.e., registering over 65 dB), and many
were warmer than what is generally
considered a comfortable room
temperature (i.e., over 73° Fahrenheit).
On a more positive note, all of the
workplaces visited were draft-free and
most had comfortable relative humidity
(i.e., 30-65%). Lighting was flicker-free,
but could not be dimmed at most of the
workplaces. Glare was also a problem at
several desks and computer screens.

ERGONOMICS OF
PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION
The results of an international online
survey with respondents from almost
50 countries basically confirm that the
findings mentioned above are not limited
to translators in Switzerland.4 The number
of respondents (1,850) also allows
for interesting comparisons between
freelance, institution-based (e.g., those
working for the EU Commission), and
company-based translators.
Compared to the other two groups,
freelancers are much less likely to have
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mouse
Freelancers

keyboard

Institution

screen

Company

chair
desk size

lighting
room temperature
air quality
noise levels
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Figure 1. Workplace features that should be more ergonomic by group (%)

a dedicated workstation, a large enough
working surface, or an adjustable chair, and
are more likely to use a laptop without any
peripherals. This probably leads to health
issues because of poor posture. Freelancers
are also the most likely of the three groups
to report neck pain and stiffness. Since
many freelancers probably work in a room
by themselves, they should exploit their
freedom and take regular breaks and change
position more often to avoid physical strain.
Despite having more ergonomic
workplaces with respect to furniture and
equipment, institutional- and company-based
translators are almost as likely as freelancers
to identify their chair as the workplace feature
most in need of ergonomic improvement (see
Figure 1 above). Institutional- and companybased staff translators differ from freelancers
with respect to how much control they have
over their environment. Even institutional
translators, who are much more likely to
have private offices than company-based
translators, complain that they cannot control
the temperature, airflow, lighting, or ambient
noise at their workplaces (see the bottom of
Figure 1). This lack of control can affect not
only comfort and job satisfaction, but also
concentration levels and even health.

ERGONOMICS OF
TRANSLATION TECHNOLOGY
As mentioned above, ergonomics also
touches on cognitive aspects. Physical and
organizational constraints will no doubt

have an impact on cognition, as will the
technology translators use. CAT tools have
been around for many years, but there is
some evidence from our research, and from
that of others, that translators are not always
entirely satisfied with the tools they use,
though they generally find them helpful.5
From our survey results, it's clear that not
all translators use CAT tools (about 70% of
freelancers, and about 80% of institutionaland company-based translators report
doing so). However, half the freelancers
and institutional translators surveyed who
use CAT tools keep the default settings
instead of exploiting the possibilities that
exist to customize the tools to suit their own
ergonomic needs. This might be because
customization is too complicated. The reason
that company-based translators are more
likely to change the default settings might be
that they have special training or technical
support. In addition, well over half of the
translators surveyed report that there are
aspects about their CAT tools that irritate
them, suggesting that there is much room for
improvement in terms of the ergonomics of
current translation technology. In particular,
they complain about the complexity of user
interfaces and forced segmentation of text.6
As machine translation (MT) becomes
more dominant in some sectors of the
translation profession, new cognitive
challenges have emerged. For instance,
post-editing has been introduced as a
relatively new task for some translators. MT
American Translators Association

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2017