ONLINE LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR
For the purposes of aiding communication between patients who may not speak English as their first language, Thompson Opticians provides a link to dedicated online translation software.
Currently this service is only available to speakers of certain languages, but it is our hope to eventually extend this to others as soon as it becomes available to do so.
Babel Fish Translator: www.babelfish.altavista.com
Babel Fish Translator is a free online service which provides an excellent selection of languages and a virtual keyboard for typing unique letters and characters. It is straightforward to use and can be accessed by clicking on the link shown above. Once the web page has loaded, simply enter the text you wish to translate into the main text box, labelled Translate a block of text. If you need to use a special language specific keyboard at this point, click on the link below the text box. This will load up a keyboard on your screen and will allow you to change it to the language of your choice. Below the link for the keyboard, there is a drop-down menu displaying the words Select from and to languages. Here you can select what languages you wish to use, i.e English to French translation, German to Spanish etc... When you are happy with your selections, simply click on the Translate button and Babel Fish will present you with the translation.
IM Translator: http://translation.paralink.com/
IM Translator is a free translation service. To use this service, select the type of translation you desire from the drop down menu marked Direction, located beneath the window marked Original Text. Once the appropriate languages have been selected, type the text you wish to translate into the first text window and select the button marked Translate. This will translate the text into the chosen language and place the translated version it into the second window marked Result of Translation. If you need to use a specialised keyboard for language-specific keys, click on the virtual keyboard icon 
located in the toolbar above the Original Text window. This will create an on-screen representation of a keyboard, and from there, you can select the language it represents and type in the original text in that selected language.
1-800 Translate: http://www.1-800-translate.com/machine_trans/
1-800 Translate provides a free trial of their software. In the section marked Free Trial, select the language from the drop down menu that you wish to translate from, and then the language you wish to translate to. Having done so, type in the passage of text that you wish to translate. Once that is complete, click on the button marked Continue With Automatic Translation and this will take you to a new webpage showing the translation. Scroll down and the boxes displaying the original text and translation can be found.
Disclaimer: Thompson Opticians will not be held responsible for any errors or inaccuracies caused by these translations.
