Crisis situations, including disasters, require urgent decisions, often without sufficient resources, including
decisions about translating and interpreting. We argue that using citizen translators (i.e., translators without professional
translator training) in such contexts can be ethically justified when their preparation incorporates virtue ethics. Translation
potentially improves access to crucial safety information, and delivering such information is critical. We acknowledge several
ethical challenges with citizen translation based on our experience in humanitarian contexts, relevant literature, and discussions
with stakeholders engaged with our research consortium. Recourse to citizen translators has limitations, but we advance mitigation
measures through training to address the ethical challenges of providing translation services to linguistically diverse groups in
crisis. We propose virtue ethics as a framework for citizen translators to develop ethical decision-making skills and virtues. We
suggest virtue ethics training to prepare citizen translators for ethical challenges in the field.
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Cited by (11)
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Reijers, Wessel & Quinn Dupont
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Teng, Yanjiang
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