Language deprivation
prevents hundreds of
millions of people
from accessing
basic human rights.
We mobilize to end the systemic translator deficit through:
Capacity building:
We offer rapid response emergency language access support in 180+ languages.
We provide around the clock professional trauma-informed interpretation and translation to asylum seekers, refugees, and thousands of other individuals for whom language is a barrier to accessing safety, dignity, and support.
Economic justice:
We create talent-to-career pipelines and access to dignified wages for system-impacted multilingual people
The shortage of translators and interpreters at the border and across systems is not a talent issue, but an economic justice and funding issue. Talented multilingual people, and especially speakers of marginalized languages, are systemically underpaid or unpaid —and systematically denied professionalization opportunities— even in spite of the essential role that translators play during times of crisis and in society at large. We provide training support and sustainable income sources for system-impacted and refugee translators. We're fighting for a reality in which translators and interpreters can be centered, platformed, and paid for their work.
Systems change:
We intervene to stop language rights violations.
Across cases where asylum claims are denied, a deportation order is issued, or abuses in medical and legal systems are reported, mistranslations are an overwhelmingly common root-cause. The systemic language rights violations that put thousands of people’s lives at risk require systemic solutions. Our team works to raise awareness through public education efforts, policy and regulatory work to normalize language access across systems, and a program that mobilizes language rights interventionists to identify and disrupt language rights violations in courts and legal proceedings.