MATI Announces Keynote Presenter for 15th Annual Conference

CHICAGO - Aug. 19, 2018 - PRLog -- The Midwest Association of Translators and Interpreters (MATI) will hold its 15^th Annual Conference on Saturday, September 29, 2018 in the Campus Center at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. Founded in 2003, MATI is a Chapter of the American Translators Association, and includes the states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. This year, the conference coincides with September 30, the annual celebration of International Translation Day as established by the International Federation of Translators with recognition of the hard work of professional translators, interpreters and terminologists.

This year the Keynote Speaker is Mara Youdelman, J.D., LL.M., Managing Attorney of the National Health Law Program's Washington DC Office. She has worked on issues including Medicaid, language access, racial and ethnic disparities, and data collection.  She also served as founding Chair of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters. Her leadership with CCHI helped develop a national, valid, credible, and vendor-neutral certification program for healthcare interpreters. MATI President Christina Green states, "We are extremely honored to have Ms. Youdelman who is a recognized national expert on language access and who continuously works for culturally and linguistically appropriate health care." Ms. Youdelman is the co-author of several reports including NHeLP's Ensuring Linguistic Access in Health Care Settings: Legal Rights and Responsibilities and Language Services Resource Guide for Health Care Providers.  She also co-authored a series of "promising practices reports" for providing language services for The Commonwealth Fund.  She is recognized as a trailblazer, particularly regarding paying for language services in Medicaid and legal issues.

Ms. Youdelman's presentation, "Developments in Language Access," will include important topics that will impact the work of translators and interpreters.  She will talk about what is on the horizon with regards to language access and provide an overview of federal legislative and administrative developments and what could come for 2019. She will focus on the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination provision as well as other potential developments. Ms. Youdelman will also give us a sneak peek at NHeLP's forthcoming report documenting language access laws in all 50 states.

Registration is available at https://www.matiata.org/event-3014904.