2/17/05
— Strategic Alliance between
Culturesmart and Deaf-Talk as a
Value-Added Service for Clients
Deaf Talk and Culturesmart have
signed a strategic alliance agreement
in which Culturesmart will offer
its well-known 40-hr medical interpreter
training program and other Culturesmart
consulting services to Deaf-Talk
clients. Deaf-Talk sees this as
a great opportunity to offer a value-added
service to their clients, who, while
using Deaf-Talk services, have a
desire to grow their linguistic
and cultural capacity by cross-training
their bilingual staff. This is very
much in line with Deaf-Talk’s
belief that its Video Remote Interpreting
(VRI) services can be used as a
viable alternative or in addition
to other existing means of communicating
with Limited-English Proficiency
(LEP) clients. Each intensive training
program consists of 45 hours delivered
in many formats, carefully tailored
to meet clients’ needs. “We’re
thrilled to be able to provide such
high quality training in other states
now. Through our comprehensive needs
assessment and customized systemic
training approach, we are able to
meet the very specific needs of
each organization. As far as I know,
Culturesmart is one of the few linguistic
and cultural organization that provides
a broader range of skills and offers
extensive language-specific training
– currently in over 18 languages
and dialects. And the list keeps
growing…” says Figaro,
Chief Executive Officer of Culturesmart.
(www.culturesmart.org)
Deaf-Talk LLC (DTI – www.deaf-talk.com
) Since 2000, Deaf-Talk has been
a leader in Sign Language Interpretation
via videoconference for hospitals
nationwide. The integration
of this technology with Certified
Sign Language Interpreters made
the communication between health
care professionals and the deaf,
easy and timely, particularly in
emergencies when a few short minutes
could be the difference between
life and death.Realizing the communication
gap was yet much greater, Deaf-Talk
expanded, introducing a new name,
DT Interpreting, and new services,
such as videoconference interpretation
in fourteen target languages, phone
interpretation services in 150 languages,
written translations, and transcription
into Braille. Deaf-Talk renders
services around the clock, 24/7,
365 days per year, and its interpreters,
translators and transcriptionists
are seasoned, certified professionals
with experience in many different
fields and disciplines. Clients
include Hospitals, Utility Companies,
Collection Agencies, National Trucking
Companies, Public Transit Systems,
Federal and State Prisons, International
Resorts, Universities, Crisis Help
Lines, 911 Services, Postal Facilities,
and many others. Deaf-Talk is rapidly
growing at a rate of twenty hospitals
a month, and has drawn the attention
of several media organizations due
to its impact in the health care
industry.
Culturesmart (www.culturesmart.org)
is a cultural and linguistic capacity
building organization, dedicated to
reducing health disparities through
consulting services and customized
training solutions that seek to improve
communication with culturally and
linguistically diverse populations.
Culturesmart offers primarily its
nationally renowned interpreter training
program, The Essential Piece
in a variety of languages to qualified
bilingual healthcare staff. This program
has been delivered to over 2,000 training
participants in over 20 languages.
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