logo image
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs
MENU
  • News
    • People Moves
    • Deal Wins
    • Demand Drivers
    • M&A and Funding
    • Financial Results
    • Technology
    • Academia
    • Industry News
    • Features
    • Machine Translation
    • — Divider —
    • Slator Pro
    • — Divider —
    • Press Releases
    • Sponsored Content
  • Data & Research
    • Research Reports & Pro Guides
    • Language Industry Investor Map
    • Real-Time Charts of Listed LSPs
    • Language Service Provider Index
  • Podcasts & Videos
  • Events
    • Design Thinking – February 2021
    • — Divider —
    • SlatorCon Coverage
    • Other Events
  • Directory
  • RFP Center
  • Jobs

Advertise on Slator! Download the 2021 Online Media Kit Now

  • Slator Market Intelligence
  • Slator Advertising Services
  • Slator Advisory
  • Login
Search
Generic filters
Exact matches only
Advertisement
Australia Launches Video Remote Interpreting Service

4 months ago

September 30, 2020

Australia Launches Video Remote Interpreting Service

Demand Drivers ·

by Marion Marking

On September 30, 2020

4 months ago
Demand Drivers ·

by Marion Marking

On September 30, 2020

Australia Launches Video Remote Interpreting Service

Australia’s non-English-speaking (NES) population has been growing exponentially compared to its native English speakers.

Latest census figures show that the number of people who speak a language other than English at home has been growing 12 times faster than those who speak English only. Government officials and various experts say this NES population has become particularly vulnerable during the pandemic.

Responding to the growing demand from the country’s NES patients due to Covid-19, the country’s Translating and Interpreting Services (a.k.a. TIS National) launched a video remote interpreting (VRI) service for telehealth consultations.

Advertisement

The VRI service is already being used, mostly by people locked down in the state of Victoria, Mirage News reported on September 25, 2020. (Although the government has eased restrictions in Victoria as of press time, the state is said to have been under the “longest lockdown in the world,” even as other reports beg to differ.)

Mirage News said the most commonly requested languages are Vietnamese, Arabic, Mandarin, Greek, Italian, and Farsi.

GLOBO’s Gene Schriver talks about on-demand interpreting on SlatorPod

In a July 2020 Slator report, NAATI, Australia’s certifying authority for linguists, said the top five first languages among translators and interpreters are Chinese (26.5%), English (13.8%), Arabic (7.5%), Vietnamese (5.4%), and Persian/Farsi (5.2%), based on data from a recent nationwide survey. Other languages had 2.5% or less respondents.

Australia’s VRI service allows medical practitioners to book a remote interpreter for video consultations with NES patients — supplementing the agency’s existing phone interpreting service (OPI) that first launched in 1973 and now provides 24/7, year-round OPI “for the cost of a local call” for anyone in the Commonwealth.

According to the TIS website, the service aims to provide “credentialed and secure interpreting services in more than 140 languages” through more than 2,300 interpreters, who are permanent residents or citizens of Australia.

Covid-19 Translation Still “Problematic”

The increased demand for language services due to Covid-19 is not limited to interpretation. On September 23, 2020, ABC News reported on the “overload of public health messaging” around the new coronavirus, which vulnerable migrant communities find especially complex and difficult to access or understand.

Pro Guide Sales and Marketing for Language Service Provider and Translation and Localization Companies (Product)

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

Data and Research, Slator reports
36 pages. How LSPs generate leads, hire and compensate Sales staff, succeed in Digital Marketing, and benchmark against rivals.
$260 BUY NOW

The same report quoted Macquarie University translation and interpreting lecturer Jinhyun Cho as saying, “Translated COVID-19 information is problematic in that it is not easily searchable and often buried within government website[s].”

Cho further commented on the translation quality of Covid-19 information, saying that, although a lot of it is good, some translated materials have readability issues.

Much of the public healthcare information around Covid-19 cannot be verified without high levels of English literacy, ABC News pointed out, quoting Macquarie University distinguished professor of applied linguistics Ingrid Piller as saying that some 4% of Australia’s population, “somewhere between 800,000 and one million people […] don’t actually speak English, or don’t speak it at a level that they can read it or get any kind of complex information. That makes a large section of our population much more vulnerable.”

TAGS

AustraliacoronavirusCovid-19healthcarehealthcare interpretingNAATIOPItelehealthTIS Nationalvideo remote interpretationvideo remote interpretingVRI
SHARE
Marion Marking

By Marion Marking

Slator consultant and corporate communications professional who enjoys exploring Asian cities.

Advertisement

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SLATOR WEEKLY

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

SUBSCRIBE

SlatorSweepSlatorPro
ResearchRFP CENTER

PUBLISH

PRESS RELEASEDIRECTORY LISTING
JOB ADEVENT LISTING

Bespoke advisory including speaking, briefings and M&A

SLATOR ADVISORY
Advertisement

Featured Reports

See all
Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

Slator 2020 Language Industry M&A and Funding Report

by Slator

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

Slator 2021 Data-for-AI Market Report

by Slator

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

Slator 2020 Medtech Translation and Localization Report

by Slator

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

Pro Guide: Sales and Marketing for Language Service Providers

by Slator

Press Releases

See all
Rheinschrift Language Services – Strategic Improvements and Workforce Expansion in 2021

Rheinschrift Language Services – Strategic Improvements and Workforce Expansion in 2021

by Rheinschrift Language Services

Memsource Acquires Phrase

Memsource Acquires Phrase

by Memsource

Across Systems will be part of the Volaris Group

Across Systems will be part of the Volaris Group

by Across Systems GmbH

Upcoming Events

See All
  1. Memsource MT Post-Editing Pricing Models Webinar

    Pricing Models for MT Post-Editing Workshop

    by Memsource

    · February 3

    Hear a panel of innovative localization professionals share different approaches for MT post-editing pricing.

    More info FREE

Featured Companies

See all
Text United

Text United

Memsource

Memsource

Wordbank

Wordbank

Protranslating

Protranslating

Seprotec

Seprotec

Versacom

Versacom

SDL

SDL

Smartling

Smartling

Lingotek

Lingotek

XTM International

XTM International

Smartcat

Smartcat

Translators without Borders

Translators without Borders

STAR Group

STAR Group

memoQ Translation Technologies

memoQ Translation Technologies

Advertisement

Popular articles

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

Why Netflix Shut Down Its Translation Portal Hermes

by Esther Bond

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

Top Language Industry Quotes of 2020

by Monica Jamieson

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

The Slator 2020 Language Service Provider Index

by Slator

SlatorPod: The Weekly Language Industry Podcast

connect with us

footer logo

Slator makes business sense of the language services and technology market.

Our Company

  • Support
  • About us
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to the Slator Weekly

Language Industry Intelligence
In Your Inbox. Every Friday

© 2021 Slator. All rights reserved.

Sign up to the Slator Weekly

Join over 13,000 subscribers and get the latest language industry intelligence every Friday

Your information will never be shared with third parties. No Spam.