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In our January 2023 newsletter, we talked about the values of Access Language Solutions: Purpose, Professionalism, and Preparedness. This month, we discuss what Access Language Solutions stands for.  There’s the old phrase, “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything,” and that holds true in all facets of life, including business. In the non-profit world, there…

Kentucky welcomed thirteen additional qualified medical interpreters in the month of September. Held at Global Lex in Lexington, KY, the Kentucky Interpreter & Translator Association, through trainer Nathalie Dietrich, Certified Medical Interpreter (Spanish), thirteen individuals with proven multilingual skills met for thirty-two hours over the course of two weekends. With lessons in basic interpreting skills,…

Access Language Solutions (ALS) and Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) are natural partners. ALS enhances the mission of KRM by providing much-needed language support for their resettlement services. ALS has recently deepened this partnership so that Afghani refugees can obtain entry-level interpreter certificates. Through the professional interpreter/translator association and education arm of ALS, Kentucky Interpreter &…

In January 1992, I was on an overnight train traveling from Madrid to Seville, Spain. I was living in Madrid at the time, teaching English at an after-school academy. I had been invited along to a weekend trip with friends, and that wasn’t something I would say no to. Sometime after, we settled down to…

I’ve been lucky. I went from being a Spanish teacher to coordinating language services in a hospital to being the Executive Director of a non-profit language provider agency that I founded 6 years ago. I have rarely needed to rely strictly on interpreting to make a living. Although I understand the desire to as it…

Director’s Statement In 2022, our fifth full year of existence, we knocked it out of the park. There are so many good works happening behind the scenes, and we aren’t always good at tooting our own horns. For those who understand how essential language access is and to those we have yet to convince, here…

Have you ever heard yourself utter these words during an assignment? “Oh, I’m just the interpreter.” It’s a strange juxtaposition to be arguably the most crucial person in the room and, at the same time, one who attempts to be nearly invisible in support of the provider-client relationship. If we do our job correctly, our…

Access Language Solutions and the Kentucky Interpreter and Translator Association (KITA) have a long history of working together. Both nonprofits’ missions are similar, and the founder of ALS is a founding member and former president of KITA. As of August 17 this year, KITA has been dissolved as a nonprofit organization. ALS has absorbed KITA,…