Interpreting at Inclusive Events. A Very Personal Story. UTIC Webinar-2018

This webinar is dedicated to interpreting at inclusive events. It will be a summary of new developments in the global environment in relation to the roles and needs of people with disabilities/impairments, changes to the concept of disability as such, and lessons to be learned by language service providers/event organizers on any scale if we are to make various activities truly inclusive and diverse.

Elena Chudnovskaya will share her views on such matters as accessibility, universal design, and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. She will give some examples of best practices and challenges throughout the world and present some highlights from her own experience as an “inclusive language professional”.

About the speaker

Since 2003, Elena Chudnovskaya has been working as a simultaneous and consecutive interpreter, in addition to performing written translation. She has provided interpretation in such varied locations as the inside of a furnace used for cement firing (after the furnace had cooled, obviously), aboard a high-speed train (as it was moving), industrial expositions and art exhibitions, conferences (for medical personnel and others), and even the great outdoors (for tourists). Having originally studied to become a teacher, Elena spent a number of years in a “previous life” teaching English and a bit of German at a polytechnic institute and on private courses. A few years ago, she developed a training course for simultaneous interpreters, and currently teaches part-time in the department of simultaneous interpreting at the Business Bureau of the Association of Interpreters in Yekaterinburg, where she gladly acts as a mentor for her junior colleagues.

In 2013 and 2014, Elena served as a senior interpreter at several language industry conferences, including UTIC. At UTICamp-2016, she was an expert on the “The Art of Translation” track.

As a coach Elena has designed and taught an introductory course for interpreters and a voice development workshop. In September 2017, she successfully organized language support at a unique event – the First World Congress for Persons with Disabilities in Ekaterinburg, and continues to support international projects with the aim of making the world more comfortable for people with all kinds of abilities and needs. She has also spoken at several international conferences, including bp16 in Prague, the ITA Conference in Jerusalem, and ELIA Together in Berlin.