The CACTI Blog: The Importance of Inclusivity and Intersectionality in Healthcare
By Alehxia Apodaca 2024-2025 Interdisciplinary Approach to Disability in Professional Practice Intern
During my internship at the Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities, I had the amazing opportunity to work with several people, including Celina Urquidez, on the Center’s Pregnancy and Parenting Project. My role in the project was to translate, from English to Spanish, documents that included information about sexual health, pregnancy and post-partum health. As a student who is double majoring in Spanish (with an emphasis in translation & interpretation) and Deaf Studies, this internship was the perfect opportunity for me to apply the skills and knowledge that I’ve gained throughout my college career. While I enjoyed every part of this internship, my biggest take away from this experience was the concepts of accessibility and intersectionality.
When choosing my majors, I never anticipated for these two different fields to overlap, especially so soon in my career. I was grateful to learn a lot about Deaf and disability culture whilst learning American Sign Language. It allowed me to better understand different types of disabilities such as Intellectual and/or Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and why it’s best to write in plain language so that any information provided is accessible to people who may have IDD. At the start of my internship, I had to go through training in order to prepare myself to correctly translate the documents presented to me. Some of that training included the use of plain language, which is the practice of wording sentences in a way that conveys the full message to the target audience without overcomplicating it, in order to avoid confusion and to be inclusive of those with IDD.
I found it fairly easy to understand the use of plain language; however, the part that I found the most challenging was trying to apply the same method in a different language. In my Spanish medical translation and interpretation courses, we learned a lot about technical names, words and phrases, many of which aren't very common knowledge and might confuse people. Therefore, in order to avoid this confusion and to continue the use of plain language, I would come up with or search for different alternatives for words, phrases and sentences. I would then read these out loud to determine which one made the most sense and was comprehensible. If I was ever stuck on a translation, I would seek help from my family who are also native Spanish speakers like me.
Plain language is a method used to make information more accessible to people with disabilities; my role as a translator was to make that information accessible to those who not only have disabilities but are also Spanish speakers. Besides the plain language training, I was taught more about the concept of intersectionality, which reinforced my belief in its importance. Intersectionality is the concept of people identifying with more than one community, such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, age, etc. As I previously mentioned, I learned a lot about disability culture while I was completing my Deaf Studies degree; however, in these courses, we mostly focused on the treatment and the laws and policies that affect disabled people in the United States. Never did I wonder about how people with disabilities are treated in other countries, or who live in the US and speak a language other than English. My experience with this internship reminded me how important it is to remember that people come from so many different backgrounds, and they may face prejudice or injustice based on their identities. For that reason, I’m very grateful that the Sonoran Center for Excellence in Disabilities exists and takes the time and effort to educate Hispanics/Latinos with disabilities about their health and the resources that are available to them, especially when it comes to sexual and reproductive healthcare. I look forward to using this experience and applying it to my future career and life, to continue to help people from all backgrounds, and to always try my very best to be mindful and inclusive.
Click here to download these factsheets on Postpartum Depression in accessible pdf format.
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