Simultaneous interpreting was once exclusively accessible to large international organisations and governments, and RSI was most commonly used in high profile or high budget events. ‘RSI’ and ‘community’ were never used in the same sentence, until now. With the options of RSI technology sweeping the language industry, 2M has taken the bold step to close the gap to accessibility by democratising RSI for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.
RSI as a technology is revolutionising engagement with CALD communities by helping to remove linguistic and geographic barriers and enabling fluid, two-way communication. By democratising RSI, we are ensuring multicultural communities are part of, and have a voice in, the conversation.
In Australia, CALD communities have faced disproportionate health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic due to delayed government health updates and lack of in-language support. The demand for timely and culturally appropriate information is becoming increasingly evident, wherein RSI plays a valuable role in empowering and engaging multicultural communities. At 2M, we are leveraging RSI along with our technical expertise to ensure CALD communities have access to timely, multilingual, and meaningful information via the appropriate channels. Where governments and organisations have previously fallen short when it comes to communicating through the appropriate channels, we have found that RSI is a flexible and even essential platform in improving engagement rates, engagement quality through the use of in-language support, and to extend reach to wider audiences.
This doesn’t come without challenges. RSI has led to reduced costs but Simultaneous Interpreters still need to be paid. And where to find the talent pool of simultaneous interpreters for low resource and community languages? This presentation includes concrete advice on how to create the required vendor pool, how to introduce convincingly RSI into community settings and overcome the budget barrier. Tech in every setting? Yes, please.
