Introducing ASTM

Teresa Salazar

For the past two and a half years, NAJIT has been participating in drafting an industry standard for the interpretation field under the auspices of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Although it began as an engineering organization, ASTM now functions as an umbrella organization for setting national standards in a variety of fields.

The Interpretation Subcommittee that has worked on the Interpretation Standard has had a fluid composition since the process was initiated at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in 1997. Representatives from the different areas of interpreting, technical vendors, language service providers, and instructors have all been involved in drafting the standard. The subcommittee members hail from state government organizations, commercial enterprises, and professional associations.

The scope of the standard is very broad and seeks to provide anyone in need of contracting and working with interpreting services with a practical reference source that covers the theoretical aspects as well as the practical applications of the profession. To begin with, the standard provides the user with a terminology list and covers conference, court, educational, medical, and sign language interpreting, as well as the different settings in which services are performed. It provides the user with information regarding interpreter qualifications, a code of ethics based on the universal canons common to the codes of ethics of most professional interpreter organizations, and sets out appropriate working conditions and equipment for different settings.

The standard aims to eliminate any ambiguity regarding the responsibilities of professional interpreters, as well as outlining the responsibility of parties contracting interpretation services to make sure that appropriate conditions conducive to good interpreting are observed. It is designed as a guideline to benefit all the different parties involved in the field of interpreting by providing the user with practical and easy to understand information. Its usefulness will depend to a large extent on people=s awareness of its existence once it is finalized. As professionals in the field, it behooves us to promote its application.

As of August 2000, when the subcommittee met in Monterey, California, the standard measured more than thirty pages and was ready for review by ASTM editors. The next meeting of the subcomittee will take place in Washington, D.C. later this fall.