Reducing use of children as hospital interpreters

When a non-English speaking patient is diagnosed with terminal cancer, it often falls on a child to interpret for his mother or father. Traumatic for the child and highly prone to error, the use of child interpreters for serious medical conditions is unacceptable.

That’s why Assemblyman Leland Yee, supported by the ACLU, Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality, and the Children’s Advocacy Institute, is fighting for a law to reduce the use of child interpreters.

Under Yee’s law, hospitals must provide adult interpreters for the most serious cases, including cases involving domestic violence and terminal illness.