The power of translation: making MS information accessible

International Translation Day

30 September is International Translation Day – an opportunity to celebrate multilingualism and highlight the vital role translation plays in international collaboration and building inclusive cultures. MSIF has members in 45 countries and links to many other organisations across the world.

A key aim in MSIF’s strategy is to make accurate and trustworthy information available globally, to help MS organisations support people with MS everywhere make confident and informed decisions about their MS. To do this, we repurpose and translate the very best information resources produced by our member organisations, making them available for use around the world.

Find out how the MSIF movement works together to translate vital MS information for all those who need it.

Resources for anyone, anywhere

The MS Resource Hub is a central platform on MSIF’s website that signposts to over 300 free MS information resources in 32 languages, all from MSIF and its members across the globe.

Translating resources internationally helps MS organisations to avoid duplication of work – all whilst strengthening connections across the movement.

We have seen some excellent collaborations between MS organisations, translating resources and sharing information. MSIF’s most recent information resource ‘Fatigue: an invisible symptom of MS’ has been translated into 11 languages (English, Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, Indonesian, Czech, Icelandic, Russian, Slovak, Serbian, Polish and Macedonian). After seeing them on the MS Resource Hub, Polskie Towarzystwo Stwardnienia Rozsianego (Polish MS Society) worked with the Associazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla (AISM – Italian MS Society) to add Polish subtitles to ‘Sono Molto Altro’, a powerful animated series in Italian about teenagers and MS published by AISM.

Another brilliant demonstration of international collaboration is the Kids Get MS Too video, published by the National MS Society and translated by Schweizerische Multiple Sklerose Gesellschaft (Swiss MS Society) after seeing an article about the video resource on the MSIF website. They added subtitles in French, German and Italian.

The great effort from MSIF’s member organisations in sharing these resources through the Hub has helped to make information in 32 languages more accessible to the global MS movement and we aim to see that number grow. If you are from an MSIF member organisation and would like to contribute to the hub, you can submit details of your resources here.

Translation in crisis: Global COVID-19 advice for people with MS

In response to the need for COVID-19 related information and guidance for people with MS, MSIF convened an international team of experts to develop global advice. Since this advice was published, the MSIF movement has mobilised to translate this advice and make it useful for more people across the globe. Since updates have been made to the advice throughout 2020 and 2021, the global COVID-19 advice for people with MS has been translated into a number of languages including Arabic, Spanish, Slovak, Japanese, Serbian, French, Dutch, Icelandic, Portuguese, Czech and German. These translation efforts helped to ensure the advice reaches people with MS in a time of great need.

Read the advice: https://www.msif.org/coronavirus

Translating campaigns, news & information at MSIF

MSIF offers tailored support to MS organisations in Arabic and Spanish through our capacity building programmes. We have regular contact with 35 MS organisations across 16 Arabic-speaking countries and we work with around 25 organisations across 20 Latin American countries. Our approach to translation supports these programmes. We translate sections of our website into Arabic and Spanish, to ensure people around the world can access the information they need. To keep the global MSIF movement up to date with MS organisation news and research updates from across the world, our newsletters are available in English, Arabic and Spanish. Explore the news here: https://www.msif.org/news-and-events/

To make our website more accessible to an international audience we have also installed Google Translate across the site, giving instant translations of any of our pages into many other languages. Although this is an automated translation and may not be completely reliable, it’s a useful tool for browsing in other languages.

We translate our campaigns to ensure we are reaching more people across the world. Our flagship campaign World MS Day is officially marked on 30 May. It brings the global MS community together to share stories, raise awareness and campaign with everyone affected by MS. To help reach more people with the World MS Day campaign, each year MSIF produces a free World MS Day toolkit translated into English, Spanish, Arabic, French and Portuguese. There are posters, graphics, and much more… Ready for the MS community to advocate for change right across the world. Explore the tools.

Check out the World MS Day website in English, Spanish, Arabic, French and Portuguese.

World MS Day is another great opportunity for MS organisations to collaborate and share information. During World MS Day 2020, Esclerosis Multiple Argentina (EMA) teamed up with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of India (MSSI), to translate MSSI’s ‘Yoga for self-care’ video into Spanish.

The Atlas of MS is the most comprehensive worldwide study of the epidemiology of MS and the global availability and accessibility of resources for people with MS. This information is a powerful advocacy tool for MS organisations across the globe, therefore it is important that the reports are accessible to more people. The Atlas report and toolkit are available in English, Spanish and Arabic. Explore here.

Translating with the MSIF movement

Working together to translate resources helps make important information accessible to more people across the world. If you are from an MSIF member organisation and you come across a resource on the #MSResourceHub or elsewhere on the MSIF website that would be useful for your organisation, do not hesitate to get in touch about translating!