Post-Reduction in Force: The World Is Moving On— I’m Still in Limbo
Layoffs are never easy—nor are they simple. They may stem from financial realities or strategic decisions handed down from leadership. Some come with warning; others arrive in a simple, impersonal email. However they unfold, they impact people’s lives and livelihoods—and nearly always stir fear, uncertainty, and grief. In this reflective essay, the author explores how to navigate these liminal spaces with presence, purpose, and compassion. What does it mean to rebuild after loss? And how do we, collectively, create a future that still feels worth getting up for in the morning?
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ATA Advocacy Updates: Leading Language Organizations Oppose Executive Order 14224, Warn of Potential Consequences
ATA’s Advocacy Committee and Public Relations Committee recently worked on two major initiatives: joining other organizations to oppose Executive Order 14224, and urging President Trump, his cabinet, and members of Congress to reinstate safe pathways for interpreters who worked alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
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NMT and GenAI: What Are You Afraid Of?
Amid the sea of change we’re starting to observe today with GenAI, it’s worth taking a moment to consider where we stand as a profession, what has (and has not) changed with neural machine translation and GenAI, and how we might look to the future with some assurance and—dare I say—even optimism.
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Bridging the Gap: How ALC Bridge Is Connecting Academia and the Language Services Industry to Ensure a Sustainable Talent Pipeline
With demand for translation, interpreting, localization, captioning, dubbing, consulting, and other specialized services skyrocketing, the need for skilled professionals has never been greater. However, despite the growth in demand, the pool of adequately trained talent is falling extremely short. Here’s a brief overview of how the Association of Language Companies (ALC) Bridge initiative engages with academia to close the talent gap in the language services industry.
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Can Someone Please Tell Me to Get to Work? The Power of Virtual Coworking Sessions
ATA’s Business Practices Education Committee has been hosting “Power Hour” coworking sessions since the spring of 2023. Email invites are sent every two months to the Business Practices Community, which any ATA member can join for free. The mutual accountability of these sessions can serve as a powerful source of motivation, allowing linguists to stave off distraction and instead focus on deep (or deeply tedious) work.
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When Words Ask for Extra Calm
A localization manager and a Portuguese-language consultant discuss their work with sleep and meditation programs on the Calm app. They share some of the decisions they make for content that have an impact on people’s well-being, from linguistic subtleties to the important role sound and rhythm play.
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Interpreting and Translating for Families of Children with Multiple or Low-Incidence Disabilities: Terms to Know
There are special concerns that interpreters and translators should keep in mind when collaborating with educators and families of students with multiple or low-incidence disabilities. Preparation is key in every school meeting, so here’s an overview of some definitions and characteristics of multiple or low-incidence disabilities to help you stay prepared when working with families.
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How to Help Everyone Cross the Linguistic Bridge: Tips for Accessible Digital Translation and Interpreting
Your work as a T&I professional touches many, including individuals with disabilities. By adding accessibility checks to your process, you’ll be helping everyone cross the linguistic bridge.
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Brave New World: AI and Interpreting
AI has been present for some time in the T&I professions, and there is little to no risk of it disappearing. But the fact remains that both the ethical standards and the laws pertaining to AI use in general, and specifically in the field of language access, remain absent but sorely needed.
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The Legal Duty of Care: What Is It and How Does It Impact the Role of the Judiciary Interpreter?
The concept of a judiciary interpreter’s duty of care toward limited-English-proficient individuals is not a topic that gets addressed. Let’s look at the legal concept from a language access perspective and explore how the standard of care required by due process guarantees can delineate a duty of care that informs the professional best practices in the legal domain.
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Password Management and General Cybersecurity: Keep Yourself and Your Clients Safe
If you follow tech news, you know that it’s not at all difficult to find reports of major companies being hacked and having data stolen. Losing control of your personal information is bad enough, leaving you vulnerable to crimes like identity theft and credit card fraud. But members of the T&I community are also trusted with our clients’ information. We need to protect their secrets as well as our own. In a cyberworld that seems increasingly more dangerous, how can we keep our secrets safe? For language services providers, this is not just an academic question.
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Terminology Work in the Age of ChatGPT
Terminology work covers a variety of tasks. Let’s see whether ChatGPT can help us perform some of them. One task could be term extraction.
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