Over the Phone Interpretation Services

FEMA requires over the phone telephonic interpretation services be available on a continuous basis (24/7/365) to support its disaster and other designated humanitarian/special campaigns. Interpretative service providers need to be able to address the multitude of languages spoken within the United States during normal periods of activity and when call volume spikes during disaster situations and humanitarian/special campaign efforts. In order to assist its disaster and humanitarian missions, FEMA agents in a number of dedicated response centers receive calls on a 1-800 number. The agent takes information from those calling FEMA, then translates the information. If a caller speaks a language that the FEMA agent is not capable of understanding, the agent shall have immediate access to an interpretation support service. The FEMA agent can then establish a three-way conference call including a representative from the support service able to interactively translate the conversation. One of the most specialized and high priority aspects of this requirement is the ability to handle calls made by the linguistically diverse residents and potential disaster survivors of the United States and its territories. NOTE: the Contractor shall interpret all spoken languages irrespective of whether or not FEMA has encountered the language in the past.