Imagine for a moment if the flood of emails you receive daily suddenly became an indecipherable series of fonts and symbols. Unfortunately, this scenario is a reality for many Spanish-speaking individuals with limited English skills. It’s a situation that is especially frustrating for parents when it comes to online correspondence with their child’s school.
IBM and the City University of New York (CUNY) formed a partnership last October to address this situation, using innovative technology, valued at more than $150,000, designed for English language learners and their families.
IBM provided CUNY with a grant of ¡TradúceloAhora! (or Translate Now!). The technology features an enhanced version of IBM WebSphere Translation Server software that enables Spanish-speakers to translate Web sites from English to Spanish automatically. Additionally, the program provides for the translation of email messages (English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English). This translation component enables Spanish-speaking parents, for example, to communicate more readily with their children’s teachers and thus better support classroom learning.
“We deeply appreciate our partnership with IBM,” said CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. “Its state-of-the-art software is enabling thousands of students to advance their educational and professional goals. This is exactly what CUNY’s literacy programs are all about--finding the very best tools and practices to help adult students and their families move forward.”
Carlo Baldi, Director of the Adult Literacy Program at the CUNY, City College of New York (CCNY), added, “Having ¡TradúceloAhora! available to our students is a tremendous opportunity to extend the learning process beyond the classroom. Students use the software at home, with their children and with other family members and friends. In our Adult Literacy Program, counselors and administrators use ¡TradúceloAhora! to translate sites with information that our Spanish speaking students are seeking, such as the college admissions process and financial aid. Since we work with immigrant students who are not just learning English, but who are also learning about a new culture and a new way of life, we are constantly asked by our students for information and assistance regarding immigration, employment, health, housing, finances, legal matters and parental and family issues. We see IBM’s ¡TradúceloAhora! as an additional tool to make this information more accessible to all our students, so they can navigate the wealth of resources available in this country and become more informed participants in our society.”
CUNY is among hundreds of schools and nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and abroad with grants of ¡TradúceloAhora!, helping to address the Hispanic Digital Divide. This effort enabled thousands of individuals to access information in Spanish, concerning jobs, health care, immigration, legal aid and education.
“The Digital Divide means more than simple physical access to a computer,” said Robin Willner, vice president, Global Community Initiatives, IBM Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs. “It’s the ability to access relevant Web content and understand important information available on the Internet. It’s equally important for Spanish-speaking parents to understand critical e-mails on school-related topics from their children’s teachers.”
The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, recognized as the nation’s premier Latino think tank, conducted an independent evaluation of the grant program and concluded that the ¡TradúceloAhora! automatic translation software was of significant benefit to the participating organizations and their constituents.
Participating CUNY campuses include Borough of Manhattan Community College, Bronx Community College, Brooklyn College, City College, Hostos Community College, Kingsborough Community College, LaGuardia Community College and York College.