{"id":267,"date":"2023-05-13T23:57:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T04:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alcesuvoz.wichita.edu\/2023\/05\/13\/interpreter-engagement-and-education\/"},"modified":"2025-04-10T19:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T00:24:16","slug":"interpreter-engagement-and-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alcesuvoz.wichita.edu\/es\/2023\/05\/13\/interpreter-engagement-and-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Professionalizing the Interpreter Role in Kansas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interpreter Team Learns Language Access Laws and Regulations and Asks Why Kansas does not Consistently Follow Them<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Title VI<\/span><\/a><\/u> of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and <\/a>Section 1557<\/span><\/a><\/u> de la <\/a>Affordable Care Act<\/span><\/a><\/u> (ACA) provide strong protections against discrimination in federal agencies and any entity that receives federal funds, including discrimination based on language. Because virtually all healthcare entities participate in Medicaid or Medicare or otherwise take federal funds, failing to provide qualified language access services (i.e., interpreters, translated materials and same-language care) is against the law.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A team of Kansas Spanish-English medical interpreters learned about this legislation at the second Alce su Voz<\/em> interpreter workshop last Saturday, and they had a burning question: Why is the state of Kansas doing such a poor job at following these laws?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The answer is not simple and includes a combination of an imperfect system for financing healthcare, a lack of respect for the medical interpreter as a professional and an integral member of the healthcare team, ignorance of the legal requirements, and racism and xenophobia. Furthermore, many healthcare institutions in Kansas do not have a <\/a>plan de acceso ling\u00fc\u00edstico<\/span><\/a><\/u> and a language access coordinator.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s interpreter workshop was held at the <\/a>Centro Comunitario & Biblioteca Evergreen<\/span><\/a><\/u>, y <\/a>Mara Youdelman<\/span><\/a><\/u> de la <\/a>Programa Nacional de Leyes de Salud<\/span><\/a><\/u> (NHeLP) presented to the team over Zoom about the legal framework for healthcare language access, including Title VI and Section 1557. She also described a <\/a>new rule<\/span><\/a><\/u> proposed by the Biden-Harris Administration that would strengthen civil rights protections under Section 1557.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The objective of the Alce su Voz<\/em> interpreter team is to work toward the professionalization of the interpreter role in Kansas, a process that will improve the state\u2019s ability to comply with Title VI and Section 1557.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the team identified the following steps needed to meet this objective:<\/p>\n