Break the Language Barrier Consultation
Language should not be a barrier to research study participation. Translating research materials from English to other languages can help researchers communicate with representative populations. To facilitate this, we offer free consultations to research teams across Harvard University to help translate study materials, including consent forms, social media posts, recruitment flyers, interview guides, and surveys. This service is also available to local community partners who have health-related translation needs. Requests are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Resources
To further support researchers, we’ve provided templates of translated consent forms from the Harvard Longwood and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) IRBs. View these templates, translated into Spanish, Chinese, and more, via Dropbox. Utilizing these forms, which can help minimize costs for researchers and their teams, is a recommended first step as you begin to translate other research-related materials.
Testimonials
“We were able to provide Spanish versions of recruitment brochures to our more than 70 research sites for the first time in our trial’s history. This was a much-needed resource to help recruit non-English speaking participants — one step closer to making sure our clinical trial better represents the entire population impacted by the disease.”
“We have limited funding, so it was super helpful for the initiative to provide support with getting translated patient-facing documents. We’ve been able to include Spanish- and Haitian-Creole- speaking patients, which we come across frequently in the patient population we are studying.”
To learn more or set up a free consultation, please contact community@catalyst.harvard.edu.