Boston Planning and Development Agency Adds New Language Access Rules
The Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) is rolling out a new set of rules to ensure residents who don’t speak English well or…
Read MoreThousands of Afghan and Iraqi Interpreters Hope Biden will Help Them Resettle in U.S.
Afghan and Iraqi interpreters facing reprisals for helping American forces hope President-Elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration will offer them asylum in the United States.…
Read MoreTranslation on Virginia Department of Health’s Website Told Spanish Readers They Didn’t Need COVID-19 Vaccine
A Google-generated translation on the Virginia Department of Health’s (VDH) website told Spanish readers the COVID-19 vaccine was “not necessary.” The translation in question…
Read MoreMeet GPT-3, the Latest Natural-Language System
GPT-3, the latest natural-language system, generates tweets, pens poetry, summarizes email, answers trivia questions, learns language by analyzing online texts, and even writes its…
Read MoreFirst Native American Poet to Serve as U.S. Poet Appointed to Rare Third Term
Joy Harjo, the first Native American poet to serve as U.S. poet laureate, has been reappointed to a rare third term by the Library…
Read MoreOxford English Dictionary Word of the Year Expanded for “Unprecedented” 2020
The Oxford Languages 2020 Word of the Year campaign looks a little different this time around. This year has seen so many seismic events…
Read MoreHow ‘Deaf Broadway’ Is Making Musical Theater Loud and Clear
Deaf actor and director Garrett Zuercher established the theater collective Deaf Broadway in March with the goal of providing unprecedented visual language access to…
Read MoreAustralian Government Used Google Translate for COVID-19 Messaging
Documents have revealed Australia’s Department of Home Affairs used Google Translate rather than official translators to communicate with multicultural communities at the beginning of…
Read MoreAmazon Bungles Its Launch in Sweden
Amazon’s launch of a Swedish retail site, its first in a Nordic country, has caused embarrassment at the e-commerce company after a series of…
Read MoreIn Many Asian Languages, ‘LGBTQ’ Doesn’t Translate
The struggle to find the right vocabulary to describe same-sex attraction or nonbinary identities is shared by many Americans whose families speak Asian or…
Read MoreHow Advocates Connected Spanish Speakers to Health Care During the Pandemic
Advocates in the New Orleans area are helping the city’s Spanish-speaking population surmount barriers to access health care during the pandemic. “The pandemic exacerbated…
Read MoreIraqis Who Served Alongside U.S. Military Fear Retaliation from Iran’s Allies in Iraq
Iraqi interpreters who worked closely with the U.S. military in their country have grown increasingly alarmed that they could be targeted for attack, fearing…
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