ISSN: 1579-9794
Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
Remote interpreting in Spain after the irruption of COVID-
19: A mapping exercise
Interpretación remota en España tras la irrupción de la
pandemia de COVID-19. Un ejercicio de mapeo
RAQUEL LÁZARO GUTIÉRREZ
raquel.lazaro@uah.es
Universidad de Alcalá
A
LMUDENA NEVADO LLOPIS
anevado@usj.es
Universidad San Jorge
Fecha de recepción: 07/03/2022
Fecha de aceptación: 31/10/2022
Abstract: Remote interpreting, particularly telephone interpreting, was
implemented in Spain less than 20 years ago and, since then, it has become
increasingly common. Its use has even increased during the last months, due
to COVID-19 circumstances and the subsequent growth of telecommuting.
This paper aims at mapping remote interpreting services in Spain. With that
purpose, structured qualitative interviews were conducted with
representatives of the six main Spanish companies offering these services.
The results show a diffusion of telephone interpreting across the country and
an incipient presence of video-link interpreting. Nevertheless, more attention
to quality performance and working conditions should be paid.
Keywords: Telephone interpreting, Video-link interpreting, Mapping,
Qualitative interviews, Spain
Resumen: La interpretación remota, en particular, la interpretación telefónica,
se implementó en España hace menos de 20 años y, desde entonces, su uso
se ha vuelto cada vez más habitual, llegando incluso a incrementarse en los
últimos meses, debido a las circunstancias derivadas de la COVID-19 y el
consecuente aumento del teletrabajo. El propósito de este artículo consiste
en realizar un mapeo de los servicios de interpretación remota en España.
Para ello, se llevaron a cabo entrevistas cualitativas estructuradas con
representantes de las seis empresas principales que ofrecen estos servicios.
Los resultados muestran una difusión de la interpretación telefónica en todo
el país y una presencia incipiente de la interpretación por videoconferencia.
No obstante, se debería prestar mayor atención a la calidad de la
interpretación y a las condiciones laborales de los intérpretes.
212 Remote interpreting in Spain after the irruption of COVID-19 […]
Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
Palabras clave: Interpretación telefónica, Interpretación por
videoconferencia, Mapeo, Entrevistas cualitativas, España
I
NTRODUCTION
Remote interpreting can take different shapes and configurations.
Following Braun and Taylor’s (2011) terminology, it implies that the primary
participants in a conversation, who are together at one site, connect with an
interpreter who is in another location through a video or audio link. Ruiz
Mezcua (2018, p. 10) mentions that «[r]emote interpretation happens when
the interpreter is not in the same room with the rest of the participants. This
means that the interpreter needs a piece of equipment or tool to be connected
to the speakers». When the main participants are not at the same site and
connect to one another through a three-way telephone or video call, the
method of interpreting can be termed, following Braun and Taylor (2011,
p. 352) teleconference interpreting.
Traditionally, remote interpreting «takes place in consecutive mode or
dialogue mode, which means that the interpreter waits until the speaker
finishes his/her statement before rendering the interpretation into the target
language» (Ruiz Mezcua, 2018, p.10). However, in the last years and very
prominently after the outbreak of COVID-19, remote simultaneous interpreting
(RSI) is becoming increasingly popular (Jiménez Serrano, 2020; Perramon,
2020).
The first reference to remote interpreting is said to be that of Paneth
(1957), who characterized this modality as a «very neat and obvious use of
interpreters» (Paneth, 1957 [2000], p. 39, quoted by Braun, 2015, p. 353) and
foretold its further development. And the first service for remote (telephone)
interpreting was set up in Australia by Translating and Interpreting Service
(TIS National), now dependent from the Australian Government, in 1947
(Cabrera Méndez, 2016). Around 50 years later, telephone interpretation
would reach the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom (Phelan,
2001). In Spain, telephone interpreting was firstly offered in 2004, when Dualia
Teletraducciones introduced this system in different public institutions. Other
initiatives and companies, such as Interpret Solutions, joined later, and
innovative changes have occurred in recent years thanks to the spread of
smartphones, as it is the case of the Voze mobile application developed by
Migralingua Voze (Jaime Pérez, 2015).
Remote interpreters, particularly those working over the phone (in
contrast with those who connect through video-link) lack the majority of the
contextual information of the interaction, including the individuals and
elements that are present, their roles, their body language, their movements,
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etc. The lack of visual context in telephone interpreting has actually been
pinpointed by researchers and practitioners as one of the most salient
difficulties of this modality of interpretation and has been targeted as a
research objective, sometimes described as a disadvantage, but also as an
advantage (Gracia-García, 2002; Heh
& Qian, 1997; Phelan, 2001). For
instance, Lázaro Gutiérrez and Cabrera Méndez (2019) described the most
common challenges that a telephone interpreter faces in the healthcare
setting, most of which are related to the difficulty of selecting the right context
(as defined by Verschueren, 2008) because of an absence of key information
about participants or physical setting due to a lack of visual cues. This lack of
visual context is one of the main reasons that prompt the development of
video-link interpreting. Although technically more complex, videoconference
interpreting seems to help overcome one of the main difficulties of telephone
interpreting and is being implemented in some public service settings, such
as courts and, still very humbly, healthcare.
On another subject, although technological improvements allow for
more frequent and better communication, sound quality can never stop being
a concern for telephone interpreters. Several researchers have focused on
telephone interpreting technological needs and have emphasized the
importance of the sound quality of the phone and the connectivity of the line
(Kelly, 2008; Lee, 2007), particularly in later times when the use of mobile
phones has increased. Mobile phones hands free systems are very popular
amongst clients (definitely preferred to passing the handset back and forth),
but have proved to provoke important difficulties for interpreters, as their use
impacts very seriously on sound quality and, consequently, on the interpreters’
performance (Kelly, 2008; Rosenberg, 2004). Similarly, videoconference
interpreting poses analogous difficulties related to the quality of image and the
position of cameras, which, if not used properly, might not register the
necessary visual information.
Additionally, working conditions for remote interpreters have been
widely discussed at the heart of professional associations, and also by
academia. A remote performance implies a new understanding of
interpretation assignments which also impacts on fees and pricing systems.
As remote interpreting companies provide interpretation 24 hours 7 days a
week in a huge variety of languages, interpreters who are hired are located all
around the world. In this way, they can profit from the different time zones.
However, some interpreters make themselves available outside typical
working hours (Kelly, 2008), which may mean an advantage, as they can
choose their accessibility. Regarding pricing, interpreters are usually not paid
for waiting for calls, although some companies add an extra payment on a
monthly basis for waiting time at night and during the weekend. Instead, they
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Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
receive payment according to the number of minutes they are on the phone
(some companies pay a minimum number of minutes to the interpreters in
every call).
Last but not least, as they can be waiting where they want to, they can
combine their work as remote interpreters with other occupations, such as
freelance translation. In fact, most telephone interpreters work part-time and
as freelancers (Crezee, Jülich & Hayward, 2013) and it has been reported that
the unpredictability and irregularity of their assignments, together with lower
rates (when compared with other interpretation settings) cause stress and an
impact on their work-life balance. There are many factors that can become
stressors for interpreters. Lower working rates, instability, and unpredictability
have already been mentioned as examples but, of course, other personal
factors, such as life experiences, their level of resilience and their
psychological skills also play a part (Crezee et al., 2015; Cheng, 2015). On
this subject, some authors mention that remote interpreters suffer more stress
than on-site interpreters (Andres & Falk, 2009), as well as an increased
psychological effort and sense of alienation (Moser-Mercer, 2005, p. 145;
Mouzourakis, 2006) and augmented fatigue (Napier, Skinner & Braun, 2018;
Wang, 2018). However, other authors, like Gracia-García (2002), also point
out at the interpreter’s remoteness as a circumstance that can allow them for
detachment and a lighter emotional involvement and alignment to patients’
suffering.
Finally, the lack of briefing, characteristic of public service interpreting,
becomes more prominent in remote interpreting, as it is exacerbated in
emergency and sudden situations, when it is popular, and remote interpreters
usually have to deal with the unpredictable content of their assignments (Lee,
2007). Besides, remote interpreters find it also more difficult to prepare their
assignments beforehand, as they are not able to specialize as much as on-
site interpreters (Gracia-García, 2002; Heh & Qian, 1997) because they are
subject to the contracts that the companies they work for sign. This means
that remote interpretation companies, as we will see in the following pages,
may sign to provide interpretation for regional healthcare services as well as
for an insurance company, and they will hire the same interpreters for both
contracts.
1. M
ATERIALS AND METHODS
Remote interpreting, and more specifically telephone interpreting, has
gained popularity in the last decade in Spain, both in the professional and in
the research and academic field. In fact, as mentioned by Ruiz Mezcua (2018,
p. 11), remote interpreting «is becoming increasingly common nowadays, as
it provides a professional interpreting service almost instantaneously, saving
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time and money, and with successful outcomes». Evidence of its increased
recognition and use can also be found in recent works dealing with telephone
interpreting companies (del Pozo Triviño & Campillo Rey, 2016), the quality
of telephone interpreting services (Jaime Pérez, 2015; Sanz Moreno, 2018),
remote interpreters’ training (Fernández Pérez, 2015; Iglesias Fernández &
Ouellet, 2018; Ruiz Mezcua, 2019; Vigier-Moreno & Lázaro Gutiérrez, 2019)
or the provision of telephone interpreting in specific settings (Fernández
Pérez, 2015; Lázaro Gutiérrez, 2018).
This trend, which was already gaining momentum before the lockdowns
occurred in relation with the COVID-19 pandemic (Jiménez Serrano, 2020),
has enormously increased along 2020 and 2021, as remote working was
encouraged in all sectors to prevent infections. In Spain, 4.8% of workers
worked remotely in 2019, in comparison to 34% during the COVID-19
lockdowns, following Peiró and Soler (2020). These same authors signal that
the possibilities for remote working are higher in the service sector, with a
21.4% for private service and 36% for public service provision. It is precisely
for this sector that most remote interpreting services are provided, including
public service interpreting (in the healthcare setting, for the police, for schools,
etc.) and over the phone services (banking, insurance companies, customer
services, and so on).
In particular, in the healthcare setting, where interpreting services are
provided both on-site and remotely, some professional associations
recommended the implementation and fostering of remote interpreting not
only to guarantee service provision in times when the demand had seriously
increased, but also to protect the interpreters’ safety, who, in spite of working
side by side with healthcare staff, are usually not fully considered as such and
are not always provided with personal protective equipment (Runcieman,
2020).
In view of the advances of this type of interpretation and its very likely
growth in the last two years due to the COVID-19 circumstances and the
related spread of telecommuting, an updated mapping of remote interpreting
services provided in Spain was considered relevant. With this mapping
exercise we want to find out not only about the spread of remote interpreting
in Spain and its characteristics, but also about the possible impact of
telecommuting.
Remote interpreting services in Spain are provided by governmental
organizations, private companies, and non-profit groups. Six are the main
companies currently offering remote interpreting services in the study context,
namely Asitel, Dualia Teletraducciones, Interpret Solutions, Migralingua Voze,
Ofilingua and Seprotec. Remote interpreting has different degrees of
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Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
presence in the overall activity of these companies. For Dualia
Teletraducciones, Interpret Solutions and Migralingua Voze, telephone
interpreting is the main service in their overall offer, whereas for Asitel,
Ofilingua and Seprotec, remote interpreting services represent only a small
part of their overall activity, as we will explain more in detail in the following
section.
All these six companies were contacted to participate in structured
qualitative interviews. This is precisely the distinctive feature of this mapping
exercise, since, unlike previous research in the field of remote interpreting in
Spain, which analyses the interpreters’ experiences and opinions or the
interpreters’ performance (Corpas Pastor & Gaber, 2020; Fernández Pérez &
Toledano Buendía, 2018; Iglesias Fernández & Ouelllet, 2018; Lázaro
Gutiérrez & Cabrera Méndez, 2019; Torres Díaz, 2014), the interpreting
companies’ managers and coordinators’ view is studied here.
The structured interviews contained 7 questions about the following
issues: (1) provinces and (2) settings where the remote interpreting services
are provided; (3) remote interpreting variety offered (telephone and/or video-
link); (4) additional services available (i.e. on-site interpreting and translation);
(5) type of interpreters’ hiring; (6) contract of remote interpreting services
(public tender vs. private agreement); and (7) observed changes in the supply
and demand of remote interpreting services in the last months. Depending on
the requirements and availability of the companies, different profiles were
interviewed following various methods. Asitel and Interpret Solutions were
sent the interview questions via email, and answers were provided using the
same means. In the case of Dualia Teletraducciones, Migralingua Voze and
Ofilingua, interviews were carried out over the phone and the interviewees
allowed the possibility of introducing further questions, clarifications and
explanations when needed. Finally, the interview with Seprotec was carried
out through videoconference, after sending the questions via email.
The professional roles of the interviewees are provided in Table 1 as
well as the code used to identify them when analysing their answers.
Company Interviewee Professional Role Code
Asitel Interpreters’ coordinator I-1
Dualia Teletraducciones Quality assurance manager I-2
Interpret Solutions
Communication and quality
manager
I-3
Migralingua Voze CEO I-4
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Ofilingua CEO I-5
Seprotec
Coordinator of public service
interpreting
I-6
Table 1: Interviewees’ Information
All the interviewees were informed about the aims and scope of the
study and agreed both to the interviews and to remain available in case
information had to be contrasted, expanded, or checked. The answers given
by them will be analysed and compared, as well as contrasted with the recent
literature in the field, in the following pages. When relevant, quotes have been
included to illustrate the interviewees’ ideas and experiences.
2.
RESULTS
The first question posed to the companies offering remote interpreting
in Spain concerned the provinces where their services were provided. 4 out
of 6 of those companies stated that they worked across the whole country,
while one of them, in particular, Interpret Solutions, explained that they worked
in some autonomous communities (Spanish regions), such as Asturias,
Aragón, Basque Country, Catalonia, Castile and Leon, Castile-La Mancha and
Madrid, and the latter, Migralingua Voze, listed the cities they covered, which
were Badalona, Barcelona, Ciudad Real, Madrid, Santiago de Compostela,
Manresa, Vigo, Santander, Granada, Teruel, Toledo, Molina de Segura,
Salamanca, Zaragoza, Alicante, Algeciras, El Ejido, Bilbao, Las Palmas, and
Aguas (Murcia). Additionally, concerning some specific clients, they indicated
that:
Prestamos servicios allí donde las ONG que son clientas tengan sus
sedes. Por otro lado, la asistencia en carretera es nacional, por lo
que ofrecemos servicios a los lugares desde donde llamen los
clientes de las aseguradoras. [We offer our services where the
NGOs which are clients have their offices. On the other hand, road
assistance is provided nationally, so we offer our services in the
places where the people who call are.] (I-4)
The diversity in the companies’ answers corresponds to whether their
clients are public institutions at state, regional, provincial, or local level, or
whether they are private companies or NGOs, which may have headquarters
in different towns.
Regarding the settings in which their remote interpreting services were
provided, two main sectors can be mentioned. On the one hand, with respect
to the public sector, most of the companies declared that they offer their
interpreting services to healthcare facilities, social services, employment
offices, police, and courts. Additionally, some of them also offer their services
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Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
to asylum support offices, local and provincial governments, and official
tourism departments. On the other hand, when it comes to the private sector,
NGOs, migrant associations, insurance companies, small and medium
businesses, as well as the tourist sector (hotels, travel agencies and tour
operators) were cited. In relation to the two sectors, according to the
companies, they have usually participated in bidding processes to work on the
public sector, while agreements and commercial contracts were signed to
work on the private sector, as stated by some the interviewees:
Depende: si es un organismo público quien nos contrata para luego
ofertarlo a sus asociados, sí, licitación. Por el contrario, si son
empresas o particulares las que nos contratan, se dan de alta y
llaman, sin más. [It depends: if a public body hires our services in
order to offer them to their associates, we participate in a bidding
process. On the contrary, if our services are hired by companies or
individuals, they do the registration and call, without further ado.]
(I-1)
En la mayoría de los servicios públicos, trabajamos por licitaciones
públicas, que incluyen servicios de interpretación presencial,
telefónica, videoconferencia y traducción. Para empresas privadas,
solemos ofrecer un servicio puntual con presupuesto, contrato y
factura. En ocasiones, trabajamos con convenios y acuerdos de
colaboración, por ejemplo, con la Guardia Civil, que no tienen el
servicio de interpretación externalizado, pero llaman a las empresas
cuando necesitan interpretación. [In most public services we work
by public tenders which include on-site interpreting, telephone and
video-link interpreting and translation services. When working for
private companies, we usually offer a one-time service, including
budget, contract, and invoice. Sometimes we work with collaboration
agreements, for example, for the Spanish Civil Guard, which does
not have outsourced interpreting services, but call the interpreting
companies when they need their services.] (I-6)
In both cases (private and public sector), their contractual relation was
temporary, lasting from some months to some years.
Concerning the remote interpreters’ type of hiring, 4 out of 6 companies
affirmed that they usually hired freelancers, except when there was a
continuous demand (of some languages or some services); in this case,
interpreters were hired with a short-term or an ongoing contract. One of the
companies interviewed, in particular, Asitel, stated that they combined both,
freelancers and contract interpreters, while the latter, Seprotec, explained that
they did not hire freelancers, but their interpreters always signed a contract,
which could be full time or part time. It seems that the hiring processes are
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usually strict and official directives are followed, as explained by the
representatives of two of the companies:
Según la norma de calidad UNE-EN-ISO 9001:2015, pedimos que
los intérpretes telefónicos tengan una formación universitaria en
traducción o similar. Si no se posee, hay que cumplir una serie de
años de experiencia, según la titulación que se posea. Como última
instancia, la empresa proporciona un curso completo de
interpretación telefónica, por lo que las personas que vienen con
formación previa tan solo hacen la formación de protocolos, y las
que no tienen formación previa en interpretación, pero tienen algún
idioma exótico necesario, hacen el curso completo. En cualquier
caso, y siempre después del curso/protocolos de interpretación
telefónica, se hace una prueba de interpretación consistente en la
simulación de una situación real. [According to the quality standard
UNE-EN-ISO 9001:2015, telephone interpreters are asked to have
a university degree in translation or a similar degree. If they do not
have it, they should have a specific number of years of experience,
depending on the degree they have. As a last resort, the company
provides a full course on telephone interpreting, so people with
previous training only attend the training on protocols, and people
without previous training, but with a command of an exotic language,
attend the full course. Anyway, after the full course or the protocols
training, there is always a test consisting in an interpreting
simulation.] (I-3)
Para seleccionar a los intérpretes se les hacen entrevistas para
valorar su perfil (se prefieren perfiles multidisciplinarios). Para ello,
la empresa cuenta con técnicos de selección especializados, se
exige que cumplan con el código deontológico de la empresa, que
tengan permiso de trabajo sin actividad restringida y se procura
respetar los convenios provinciales de cara a las condiciones
laborales. [In order to select the interpreters, interviews are done to
assess their profile (multidisciplinary profiles are preferred). To this
aim, the company uses specialised selection technicians,
interpreters are asked to follow the principles of the company’s
deontological code, they should have a working permit without
restrictions regarding the activity, and local collective agreements
are respected concerning the working conditions.] (I-6)
Most of the times, the interpreters working in these companies were
expected to provide not only telephone interpreting services, but also video
remote interpreting, on-site interpreting, or translation on demand.
Specifically, telephone interpreting services are provided in two modalities:
remote interpreting and teleconference interpreting, following Braun and
Taylor’s (2011) terminology. The most common configuration for the first
modality is service provider and end user onsite and remote interpreter. The
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Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
second modality refers to three-way calls, where all the participants in the
interaction, including the interpreter, connect to each other through audio or
video-link.
Additionally, as stated by the companies, telephone interpreting
services provided are minimum for two of them (Ofilingua and Seprotec), while
all offer other translation services (general or specialized, such as sworn and
technical translation, in the case of Migralingua Voze), subtitling and voice-
over (in the case of Dualia Teletraducciones), and other interpreting services,
both on-site and by video-link. With regard to video-link, the six companies
offer this type of remote interpreting, depending on the client, being the most
usual the NGOs, the private education centres and sometimes the courts. On
this regard, one of the companies explains that they specifically offer video-
link interpreting:
[…] para educación privada (para seminarios, conferencias). No se
presta generalmente en los servicios públicos, pero se está
intentando en los hospitales del País Vasco y Cataluña y para
lengua de signos. [… for the private education sector (for seminars,
conferences). It is not generally offered for the public services, but
we are trying to provide it in some hospitals in the Basque Country
and Catalonia and for sign language.] (I-2)
For this type of remote interpreting, a great variety of platforms and
apps are used, as described by one of the interviewees:
También interpretamos por videoconferencia, sobre todo con ONG
porque ellos mismos utilizan videoconferencia para prestar sus
servicios. Y las plataformas son muy variadas: Skype, Meets,
Teams, Zoom, Jitsi, Whatsapp… [We also offer video-link
interpreting, especially for the NGOs because they use
videoconferencing to provide their services. And the platforms are
very varied: Skype, Meets, Teams, Zoom, Jitsi, Whatsapp…] (I-4)
In short, the demand for remote and especially video-link interpreting
seems to have increased during the last months in comparison to on-site
interpreting, mostly due to the pandemic situation:
En general ha descendido la demanda de interpretación, pero ha
aumentado el porcentaje de remota frente al de presencial. Durante
el confinamiento el 100 % de servicios se prestaron en remota
(frente al 40 % habitual). Además, se observa la utilización de
remota para llamadas cortas, algo inexistente antes de la pandemia.
[In general, there has been a decrease in the demand of interpreting,
but the percentage of remote interpreting has increased in
comparison to on-site interpreting. During the lockdown 100% of the
services were offered remotely (as opposed to the usual 40%).
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Additionally, in contrast to what happened before the pandemic,
remote interpreting is now used for short calls.] (I-4)
According to the companies participating in this study, the increase of
this demand depended on the settings where they worked. While, for example,
the demand experienced a significant decrease in some services (such as
roadside assistance, tourism, and trials) for obvious reasons, the companies
explained that there had been an upturn in some other services (such as
healthcare and education) and some new clients had contracted them
(concerning, for example, COVID tracking or phone medical assistance).
Other changes provoked by the pandemic situation have taken place,
as explained by the representative of one of the companies:
Sí, ha aumentado la demanda de videoconferencia. Ya que no
pueden viajar, muchas empresas intentan mantener un trato más
cercano con esa opción. Por otro lado, según ha ido evolucionando
la pandemia desde diciembre de 2019, el tipo de llamadas y los
países de destino también se han visto modificados. [Yes, the
demand of video-link interpreting has increased. Since many
companies cannot travel, they try to keep a close relation with this
option. On the other hand, while the pandemic was evolving, from
December 2019, the type of calls and the destination countries were
also modified.] (I-1).
The main problem with video-link interpreting in Spain (in comparison
with telephone interpreting), as stated by one of the interviewees, is that most
of the clients (especially in the public sector) are not technologically prepared.
Particularly, she clarified:
La pandemia ha acelerado todo. Los servicios de
videointerpretación siempre habían estado sobre la mesa, pero ha
sido esta la oportunidad de ponerlos finalmente en marcha porque
las administraciones están más abiertas a utilizarla. A pesar de eso,
a veces resulta muy difícil porque los centros públicos en los que
trabajan no están preparados tecnológicamente (no tienen
ordenador, cámara ni altavoces). Con la interpretación telefónica,
sin embargo, no ha habido ningún problema. Nuestros clientes
están mucho más acostumbrados y su uso con la pandemia ha
aumentado de manera exponencial. [The pandemic has accelerated
everything. The video-link interpreting services had always been
there on the table, but this has meant the opportunity to turn them
on, since the authorities are now more open to use it. Nevertheless,
sometimes it is very difficult because the public centres are not
technologically prepared (they do not have computers, webcams or
speakers). However, there has not been any problem with telephone
interpreting. Our clients are used to it and its use has exponentially
grown with the pandemic.] (I-3)
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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Technological innovations have influenced the evolution of interpreting
as a profession, being this evolution «motivated by a desire for enhancement
of productivity and a widening of service capability, with or without
commensurate improvements in job satisfaction» (Hlavac, 2013, p. 35). It is
precisely job satisfaction which has pushed most of the criticism about remote
interpreting. Increased stress, additional abilities and skills, lack of briefing and
visual input, decreased fees, isolation of interpreters, amongst other
disadvantages, have been pinpointed by interpreters, professional
associations, and researchers.
However, remote interpreting has also brought along the popularization
of interpreting, allowing for the provision of services in more languages,
settings and situations, and the use of interpreters for a greater variety of
assignments, which differ in length, formality, and preparation. For instance,
interpreting can be provided remotely for very short interactions without the
concerns and expenses of bringing an interpreter to a particular location.
Informal interactions which might take place, for example, as a result of a pop
in visit of a patient to a GP for some fast questions, can be also mediated by
an interpreter, at reach thanks to just a phone call. Sudden and emergent
situations might also be the setting of a multilingual encounter, and
interpreters can participate in them remotely without the need of having hired
them in advance for a particular event.
Societal and work changes tending to an increasing technologization of
procedures and services, and the disruptive adaptation to a pandemic, which
has relegated physical presence to an essential minimum, have been decisive
factors in the establishment of remote (public) service provision. Phone calls,
emails and virtual platforms have replaced interviews, consultations, and
meetings, to name just a few types of encounters. In this context, it is natural
that interpretation services undergo a necessary transformation towards more
distant and technological modalities, not only to be able to, for instance,
interpret in three-way calls, but also, as Runcieman (2020) pinpoints, in order
for interpreters to be protected from virus transmission, as any other worker.
Regardless of the many advantages and disadvantages of remote
interpreting in comparison to traditional on-site interpreting, the idea of an
inevitable decrease in service provision quality needs to be overcome.
Professional associations and researchers (see, for instance, Kelly, 2008; del
Pozo Triviño & Campillo Rey, 2016; and Jiménez Serrano, 2020) have
emphasised that remote interpretation is not second-rate. However,
interpreters, providers, contractors, and trainers have to work jointly to adapt
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Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
to these new circumstances and be able to provide service, conditions,
infrastructures, materials, and training allowing for the highest quality.
Over the last 30 years, population movements and migrations have
increased exponentially, resulting in a higher need of interpreters in a great
variety of languages (Runcieman, 2020), particularly in public service settings.
Although remote interpreting seems to be a plausible solution to current
interpretation demands, as usual, it has not received as much attention as
remote simultaneous interpreting in conference settings. Whereas ISO/PAS
24019:2020 was published last year regulating simultaneous interpreting
delivery platforms, after the publication of AIIC’s Guidelines for distance
interpreting (2019), there are not specific regulations for remote dialogue
interpreting. ISO 13611:2014 Interpreting – Guidelines for community
interpreting acknowledges that community interpreters work «sometimes
remotely using technology such as video or teleconferencing» (2014, p. 6)
and, consequently, should demonstrate the ability to use related technology.
However, no further explanation of that ability or the intrinsic characteristics of
remote interpreting are offered.
Before the pandemic, Corpas Pastor and Gaber (2020) carried out a
survey study to gather interpreters’ perceptions about the use of technology
in public service settings. 56 respondents reported about advantages and
drawbacks of remote interpreting. Corpas Pastor and Gaber (2020) found out
that telephone interpreting was the most widely used modality of remote
interpreting in public services (91%), followed by video remote interpreting
(36%). 21% of the respondents also used remote simultaneous interpreting.
Additionally, respondents were invited to submit suggestions to improve the
use of remote interpreting in public services. Most of the comments were
related to improving technology and its use to reduce stress and increase
comfort (improve sound quality, count on better tools and connectivity, or
provide further training for interpreters and clients who are not used to
technology or to working with interpreters). Many pre-pandemic interpreters
were still hesitant to embrace remote interpreting, however, the health crisis
has been a shot in the arm for many to start worrying about technological
skills. Our findings show that the demand for remote interpreting both through
audio and video-link has increased. However, not only interpreters need to
hone their technological skills, also public and private service providers,
clients of the remote interpreting companies, need to update their
technological knowledge. Our findings show that particularly public service
institutions lack sufficient infrastructure to set up video-link interpreting
services. Public service providers also lack skills and do not feel prepared to
communicate using remote interpreting, both because of a reduced
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Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
technological competence and because they are not used to working with
interpreters (Lázaro Gutiérrez & Tejero González, in press).
The pandemic brought about noticeable changes in the demand of
interpreting services in Spain, hand in hand with lifestyle changes imposed by
lockdowns and mobility restrictions. Before the pandemic road assistance
calls or communications about administrative matters, telephone mediated
onsite consultations and social assistance interviews were frequent (Lázaro
Gutiérrez & Cabrera Méndez, 2021). Population movements usually implied
an increase in telephone interpreting demand. For instance, peaks were
frequent during the summer, particularly at night, in Spanish coastal areas,
and during Easter holidays due to tourism in the Spanish biggest cities. In
holiday periods, there is also an increase of short-term returns of immigrant
population to their original countries, which also increases telephone
interpreting demand. However, during the lockdowns both mobility and regular
non urgent services stopped, including interviews between social workers and
immigrants in public shelters and internment centres, and the cancellation of
appointments for applicants for Asylum and International Protection in the
Immigration Departments of police stations. Telephone interpreters turned to
work with conversations which almost exclusively revolved around the
COVID-19 pandemic. New services emerged that hired telephone
interpreting, such as nurse tracers, whose mission was to contact COVID-19
patients to communicate PCR results, watch the compliance with lockdowns
and isolation measures, and provide hygiene and medication guidelines.
Telephone interpreting was also essential to keep foreign speaking
populations informed. The Spanish government regularly communicated
news and instructions on television, but this was exclusively done in Spanish
or co-official languages (Basque, Catalan, and Galician). Those who were not
able to understand these languages properly, would phone healthcare
institutions (remarkably the healthcare emergency hotline) to ask for
information, advice, and guidelines.
Our informants explain the behaviour of the demand of telephone
interpreting services as having a peak just before the lockdowns imposed with
the State of Alarm, when population was seeking information from healthcare
institutions and leaving to their original countries, an enormous drop during
the lockdowns (March and April 2020), and a considerable increase when
home confinement measures softened (from May 2020), contagion increased
and remote service provision was prioritised over face-to-face assistance.
There is also a change in the most demanded languages. Until the
lockdowns, the most frequent foreign languages in Spain were Chinese,
Arabic, Romanian, Polish and French. Most of the speakers of those
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Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
languages succeeded in returning to their home countries before the
lockdowns. During the confinement, English experimented a considerable
increase, as British residents remained in Spain.
Remote interpreting companies report having had to reinforce the
training they provide to their workers to include contents that reflect the new
market situation. After the lockdowns, more interpreters have been hired and
initial training has reached more people. New protocols (sets of guidelines
which include, amongst other aspects, information about the typical structure
of a communicative event and the most recurrent vocabulary) have also been
developed to cater for new needs. Some companies, such as Dualia
Teletraducciones, have developed tailor-made technical solutions, such as an
integrated application on tablets that was used in field hospitals for both
spoken and sign language interpretation, or an improved interface that made
it possible to access interpretation through voice commands, using internet-
connected smart speakers, thus reducing the need of touching the screen of
smartphones. They have also boosted their quality department including
emotional support by means of debriefing sessions and peer group
counselling. In fact, remote interpreters had to face difficult working situations
during the pandemic. Many of them had to confront instability as freelancers
and temporary part-time employees, and, while performing, they had to
mediate highly emotional conversations, which has been demonstrated to
produce stress and professional fatigue (Costa, Lázaro Gutiérrez & Rausch,
2020).
Two years after the outbreak of COVID-19, technology has found its
way into the labour market, entering fields where telecommuting was simply
unthinkable some months ago. Interpreting as an activity is naturally
influenced by this technological turn that the society as a whole is
experiencing towards remote modalities of work, service provision and human
interaction. It is for this reason that we think that remote interpretation will no
other than grow in the years to come in all its fields and settings. It is, however,
our desire that dialogue remote interpreting is considered and appreciated by
both professional associations and authorities so that quality performance and
working conditions are pursued and achieved, together with the full
recognition of public service interpreting in both remote and on-site modalities.
This cannot happen without involving interpreters themselves and considering
their work needs and levels of satisfaction with their profession. Future
research should thus focus on surveying interpreters, following the line on
recent contributions by Jiménez Ivars (2021) about telephone interpreting for
asylum seekers in the US, or Matsushita (2022) about the interpreting industry
in Japan: «there seems to be a growing need for continuous observation of
226 Remote interpreting in Spain after the irruption of COVID-19 […]
Hikma 21 (2) (2022), 211 - 230
the interpreting industry as it transforms itself and how interpreters perceive
and cope with future changes» (p. 183).
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