Understanding what constitutes quality in a health care text that has been translated from one language to another was the first area of research while developing the TQA Tool. Through an extensive review of translation assessment methods, it became clear that most researchers and practitioners familiar with the literature on translation evaluation agree that there is a lack of assessment standards.  The various methods for assessing translation quality fall into three basic categories:

• Procedural quality assurance systems
• Experience-based or anecdotal approaches
• Theoretical and research-based approaches

Procedural quality assurance systems are those developed primarily by the translation industry and organizations recognized as the standard bearers in the field (e.g., ASTM International, ISO or International Organizations for Standardization), as well as those developed by private translation production firms. Experience-based or anecdotal approaches consist of point systems or marking and ad hoc scales (where points are deducted for major or minor errors) developed to measure quality for a specific professional organization or industry. Among these are the American Translators Association certification exams, used to assess translator competencies, and the SAE J2450 Translation Quality Metric system, which is used by the automotive industry. Theoretical and research-based approaches tend to focus on the user of a translation, evaluating reader response of the text, and closely examining the micro-level aspects of language.  Each approach emphasizes an important aspect of quality and all enjoy some degree of success and applicability.   

Overarching is the premise that how a text is organized, down to the words chosen, is influenced by how that language achieves successful communication. However, the words on a page, the more obvious linguistic or micro-level features of a language, are only part of the picture. Assessing the quality of written language also requires taking into consideration the wider panorama of the communicative purpose of a text, the content, context and the intended audience.

Definition of quality: “Anticipate and honor the need of an intending user”
Source: Six Sigma Website

Written materials can be a valuable communication tool to help consumers take a more active role in their health care, but only if the patients are able to read and understand the information. With this in mind, translation quality needs to emphasize the relevance of a translation to the user. The TQA Tool is designed to measure quality by how well a translation meets the communicative purpose of the original text while anticipating and honoring the needs of the intended target language user (e.g., LEP patients). This definition of quality emphasizes the significance of creating translation products that accommodate the intended user while remaining loyal to the original meaning of the source text.