What makes ISO standards so attractive?

Overview

Talk on "What makes ISO standards so attractive?" by Liese KATSCHINKA and Barbara Rovan

Speakers' Biography:

Liese KATSCHINKA graduated from the University of Vienna, Austria, and obtained a university diploma as translator and interpreter (comparable to a master's degree).

Has been working as a free-lance conference interpreter and certified court interpreter (German, English), as well as a sci-tech and legal translator throughout her professional life.

Has been actively involved in a number of national and international professional associations (e.g. Secretary General of the Austrian Translators' and Interpreters' Association UNIVERSITAS from 1982 to 1991; Vice-President of the International Federation of Translators (FIT) from 1984 to 1987, FIT Secretary General from 1993 - 1999; Vice-President of the Austrian Court Interpreters' Association, Chairperson of the FIT Committee on Court Interpreting and Legal Translation, Member of the AIIC Court and Legal Interpreting Commission; President of EULITA (European Legal Interpreters and Translators Association) between 2009 and 2017.

Was actively involved in the elaboration of quality standards for translators and interpreters (ÖNORM D 1200 and EN15038). Currently project leader for the revision of the ISO standard on legal interpreting (DIS 20228).

Has written a large number of articles on the topics of court interpreting, quality assurance, association building, etc., forvarious professional journals and given several dozens of presentations on these topics at various international conferences.

Barbara Rovan, President of EULITA, freelance translator and interpreter for English, Japanese and Slovenian since 1991. Certified court interpreter for English in the Republic of Slovenia. She holds a PhD in applied linguistics. In the period 2014-2022 she was the president of Društvo prevajalcev in tolmačev Slovenije (Association of Translators and Interpreters of Slovenia).

What makes ISO standards so attractive?

Standards help define the state of the art in a profession and can therefore be usefully employed in the training, admission, and further training of legal interpreters, as well as their practical performance in legal interpreting assignments. They are also useful when explaining to the users of our services – judges, lawyers and prosecutors – how to interact/communicate with legal interpreters.

The presentation will give an overview of the benefits of standards, describe the process of developing a standard and outline the standard on legal interpreting. It will further explain how professional organizations of translators/interpreters can contribute to the development of global standards via the National Standardization Bodies in their respective countries.

EULITA (European Legal Interpreters and Translators Association) was the project leader for an ISO standard applicable to legal interpreting services (ISO 20228:2019), which is currently undergoing revision.

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