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Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators
A S S O C I AT I ON N E W S
W
e can all agree that language
access, or the lack thereof, is no
laughing matter. However, the
National Council on Interpreting in Health
Care (NCIHC) has recently taken Facebook by
storm with a series of humorous images meant
to grab people’s attention, make them chuckle,
and hopefully make them think! From topics such
as false level of language fluency to the use of
children to interpret for their own parents, the
National Council tackles tough and still prominent
issues with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
“It’s been a fun project that has really brought
some positive attention to the work being done
by healthcare interpreters,” explained Jorge
U. Ungo, former NCIHC Director and current
member of the Outreach Committee. “More
broadly, we’re looking to raise awareness of the
efforts to provide linguistic and cultural access to
health care throughout the country.”
The dissemination of the images, or “memes” as
they’re commonly referred to, has taken place
on various platforms. “Obviously, Facebook has
been the most popular, but we’re using Twitter
and Pinterest to get the images out as well,” said
Jorge, who is one of three NCIHC members who
manage the Council’s social media presence on
a daily basis. By utilizing three separate social
media platforms, NCIHC is really expanding
the reach of messages utilizing current pop
culture references.
“We’ve used the popular Star Trek “facepalm”
image, the retro-looking somecards images,
and even a picture of Judge Judy to help get
our point across,” stated Joy Connell, NCIHC
President and contributor to the NCIHC meme
project. “Each image is carefully selected and the
message meticulously worded to give it enough
punch without being disrespectful to anyone.”
The images have been incredibly popular with
thousands of “likes” and “shares,” two common
metrics that are used to determine the reach
of Facebook posts. “Definitely, Facebook has
seen the most traffic, but I’m always surprised
to see images from months ago being repinned
in Pinterest every now and then,” said Enrica
Ardemagni,
Vice-President
and
another
contributor to the project. “We’ve received emails
from training organizations and hospitals wanting
to use the images as part of their training or in-
services. They’ve been shared by companies and
organizations as well as hundreds of individuals.”
The project continues to evolve following
common social media trends. “We just launched
a series of language-related quotes that are also
receiving quite a bit of attention,” said Ungo.
“Next up we have a photo contest taking place
on Facebook. It’s been a fun project, but most
importantly, I feel we are really helping to raise
awareness and giving people tools that are up-
to-speed with today’s needs.”
To view the latest NCIHC memes, visit
or check them out on
Pinterest:
By THE NCIHC OUTREACH COMMITTEE
What’s So
FUNNY
about Language Access?
