Hi. We are Emely Medina-Rodríguez, Research Associate II with Education Development Center and principal of EMR Evaluation, and Cynthia Surya (Evaluator) and Robin Horner (Principal) of Radiance, a firm specializing in learning and evaluation strategies for social justice-focused nonprofits and philanthropies. We are all committed to aligning our work with culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) principles.
Earlier this year, we worked together on a project to learn about the impact of a community-led health justice project in New Mexico. The staff on this project are from and/or deeply rooted in the communities with whom they are working, and the advocacy and community organizing agendas were driven by community leaders who received technology, training, and other capacity and community-building support from the project staff.
We used a modified Ripple Effects Mapping strategy as one of our activities to learn from community leaders how they thought of the project and what impacts the project helped bring about over the past 12 years at individual, community, and policy/systems levels. The community leaders—mainly residing in three counties—are bilingual, with diverse proficiency; some are comfortable in Spanish and others in English.
We and the project staff decided a virtual setting would allow for the best participation (activists had received tablets and training from project staff during pandemic lockdowns). We used Zoom’s interpreting functions and embedded Emely (a native Spanish speaker, proficient in both languages) with the Spanish language cohort. We hired the same locally based firm for simultaneous bilingual interpreting that the project staff uses for community meetings.
Tips for working with simultaneous interpreters:
- Assess Language Needs in Advance: Gather information on participants’ language preferences early on to ensure you arrange the appropriate language support and have interpreters prepared for the required languages.
- Provide Contextual Information: Share the protocol and relevant background information and materials with interpreters beforehand to help them better understand the context and specific terminology related to the session and improve the accuracy of their interpretation. This can be accompanied by a responsive approach to the language and vocabulary used by the community in their daily lives. This is especially true when the Spanish speakers are from different countries.
- Schedule a Pre-Session Meeting: Hold a meeting with your interpreters before the session to plan, practice using the platform’s interpretation features, and anticipate potential issues.
- Practice for Clarity and Pacing: Ask speakers to practice articulating their points clearly and at a moderate pace to allow interpreters to process and convey the message more effectively. Spanish-speaker evaluators can intervene when the intention of the question is not clear enough from what was interpreted.
- Prepare Interpreting Instructions for Participants: Provide participants with clear instructions on how to use the interpretation functions on the platform and designate a tech support person to assist with any platform-related issues that may arise during the session.
Rad Resources
- American Translators Association
- Our NM-based interpreter also recommends these links for work within the state. You can look for similar resources wherever your community of focus is:
- New Mexico Translators and Interpreters Association
- NM Directory of Certified Court and Just System Interpreters
- CDC: Communicating with Hispanics/Latinos
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