The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2022 - 29

concerning educational
initiatives for translators
and interpreters (T&I), with
topics including pedagogy,
curriculum, and talent
development.
In all, over 40 association
representatives participated
on-site and online during
two three+ hour meetings
with broad community
interaction. The following
offers a glimpse of the high
points of these meetings.
Policy and Legislation
Policy and legislation
continue to drive and shape
much of the T&I industry,
which has benefitted from
such initiatives as Federal
Executive Order (EO)
13166/Improving Access
to Services for Persons
with Limited English
Proficiency (LEP).1
In practice, shortfalls
commonly exist in efforts
to meet the spirit and intent
of legislation to deliver
T&I services to the LEP
community. For example,
the transition to online
education and training
during the pandemic has
been difficult for many
LEP parents and students
as technology guidelines
and content are provided
principally in English.
Accordingly, children of
LEP parents continue to
be underrepresented in
advanced, accelerated, and
extracurricular programs,
likely due to a lack of
access to information in
their languages.
EO 13166
requires federal agencies
to examine the services
they provide, identify any
need for services to the LEP
community, and develop
and implement a system
to provide meaningful
access to those services. It
also requires recipients of
federal funding to do the
same. One of the outcomes
of EO 13166 has been the
establishment of enduring
language access programs
at the state and institutional
levels that offer translator
certification and interpreter
credentialing opportunities.
The T&I industry has
also faced challenges and
potential disruptions from
legislation such as California
Assembly Bill-5 (AB-5)
and H.R. 842/Protecting
the Right to Organize Act
(PRO Act), making it more
difficult for individuals
to claim independent
contractor status.2
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It was noted during the
meetings that the U.S.
Department of Education
may support additional policy
and legislative initiatives
to enhance language access
for the LEP community
in educational settings,
buoyed by U.S. Secretary of
Education Miguel Cardona's
background in bilingual and
bicultural education. This
may involve a campaign to
inform members of the LEP
community of their language
access rights as well as the
development of best practices
and standards for language
services, particularly in
educational settings.
ATA's Advocacy Committee
and Interpretation Policy
Advisory Committee continue
to be focal points for
leveraging industry practical
experience and subject matter
expertise as it relates to
policy and legislation.
Visit the Advocacy and
Outreach page on ATA's
website for more on ATA's
advocacy efforts
(www.atanet.org/news/
advocacy-and-outreach).
Technology
Technology and its
applications continue to
influence and shape the
T&I industry-again, with
advantages and challenges.
Advances in technology often
lead to enhanced quality in
conjunction with streamlined
workflows. However,
practitioners commonly face
challenges in incorporating
new technologies and
procedures, some of which
generate excess cognitive load.
Technology's influence
on the T&I industry often
requires clarifications
for clients as well as
practitioners. Nowhere is
this more apparent than
the application of machine
translation (MT) and its
implications for the T&I
industry. In this regard,
the International Federation
of Translators published
a position paper on
post-editing risks
and consequences.3
A provocative " think piece "
on " Translation Economics in
the 2020s " in the July/August
2021 edition of MultiLingual
magazine invited " healthy
debate across the industry "
on the pace and degree to
which future improvements in
MT will affect the translation
sector.4
Weighty concepts of
singularity, data ownership,
intellectual property, and
functional limitations in
artificial intelligence are
relevant to this debate as
we feel the shock waves of
an industry reconfiguration
driven by radical digitization,
human reskilling, and
exponential data intelligence.
In point-counterpoint
fashion, MultiLingual
American Translators Association 29
ATA's Advocacy
Committee and
Interpretation
Policy Advisory
Committee
continue to be
focal points
for leveraging
practical
industry
experience and
subject matter
expertise as it
relates to policy
and legislation.
http://www.atanet.org/news/advocacy-and-outreach http://www.atanet.org/news/advocacy-and-outreach http://www.ata-chronicle.online
The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2022

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