The current system is failing translators and interpreters. We have to challenge it — one organisation at a time — by asking difficult questions.
The ITI Conference is this week, and we need to raise our voices by emailing ITI or commenting on their pages. They can’t keep ignoring translators’ concerns. They may be especially interested in hearing from a translator who is a “prospective member.”

Use these questions or write your own. For inspiration, I check out this previous article about practical changes ITI Can Implement.

1. Why does ITI place so much emphasis on adaptation, and entrepreneurship while giving comparatively less attention to the role of intermediaries?
2. Why is there so little discussion about the ethical responsibilities of other actors within the translation industry?
3. Does ITI’s CEO risk obscuring the economic realities of the profession when she speaks about professionalisation without also addressing unfair labour practices, declining bargaining power, and increasing financial insecurity?
4. Is it ethically appropriate for a professional body that claims to represent translators and interpreters to maintain a strategic partnership with an interest group representing intermediaries?
5. Who benefits when professional and commercial interests align, and celebrate together?
6. How does ITI manage the potential conflicts of interest that arise from offering memberships to both individual translators and interpreters and intermediaries, whose economic interests may not always align?
7. Should labour rights, intermediaries’ pricing practices, outsourcing models, and intermediary power become central themes of ITI conferences rather than remaining peripheral discussions?
8. Are ITI’s training programmes evidence-based and responsive to the realities of the current market?
9. Are translators genuinely lacking entrepreneurship skills, or is the problem being framed in a way that shifts attention away from structural issues?
10. What is ITI doing to educate end clients about the economic conditions of the translation industry and to advocate for fair trade?
11. Has ITI critically reviewed its previous partnerships, publications, awards, and public statements?
12. What transparency mechanisms does ITI have in place to disclose sponsorships and partnerships, particularly with AI companies?
13. Is ITI willing to acknowledge and reflect on concerns raised about the Working Together document?
14. Is ITI willing to clarify claims regarding evidence of the “clear value” of its membership?
15. How does ITI evaluate whether its policies and advocacy improve the material livelihoods of translators and interpreters — not just the image of the profession?

These are important governance questions. Every professional institution should be willing to answer them.

About the author
Fardous Bahbouh is a researcher and broadcast interpreter specialising in labour rights and the political economy of the translation and interpreting industry. Alongside her academic research, she continues to work with agencies and production companies that value interpreters and translators and provide fair working conditions. She also runs a small translation company and does not generalise critiques of unfair intermediaries to all translation companies or agencies.

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Pauline Wee & DAIR / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/