The right to translation in health crises: COVID-19 in Spain, 2020

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of communication with foreign populations at the beginning of the 2020 COVID-19 health crisis in order to keep them informed about symptoms, safety measures, and access to healthcare services. We examine the translation of health crisis preparedness materials and communication materials aimed at the foreign population from a perspective based on human rights. In addition, we analyze the information on COVID-19 published by both public institutions and non-governmental organizations with the aim of comparing the communication they have each maintained with the non-Spanish-speaking foreign population. Our two main hypotheses are that Spanish public institutions will offer basic information about the crisis in English but will not include other foreign languages; and that NGOs will offer more detailed and updated information in a wider variety of foreign languages. We base our study on the right to information and the accompanying right to translation, and we analyze the above-mentioned materials within a 4-A conceptual framework (availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability) to determine how translation is addressed. In conclusion, we explore the idea that the lack of translated information is a consequence of the absence of explicit references to communication with the foreign population and translation in health crisis preparedness and response materials.