In emergency ambulance telephone calls, smooth communication and cooperation between caller and call-taker is crucial to prompt assessment and response. A language barrier, such as when the caller has a limited repertoire in the language or has a non-standard accent, can lead to delays in taking action and prolong medical problems (Fele 2016, Garcia 2022, Osvaldsson et al. 2013). Research has shown that speakers with an accent are perceived as less credible (Lev-Ari & Keysar 2010) and less confident (Abu Guba 2023). It has also identified the negative effects of covert and overt accentism experienced by migrants (Dryden & Dovchin, 2021). A significant knowledge gap remains regarding the concrete interactional and linguistic ways in which accentism and language barriers unfold in calls and how to address this health inequity.

We investigated a large corpus of emergency calls to an anonymous emergency medical service. Using Conversation Analysis to examine the dialogue between caller and call-taker, we identified cases where linguistic discrimination and accentism contributed to delays in call-takers taking urgent action to address the emergency. In this presentation, we provide a taxonomy of linguistic discrimination and accentism in emergency call communication and then analyse the ways in which callers and call-takers address language barriers in order to bring the call to completion.

We argue that the difficulties that arise in language barrier calls are often co-constructed, with one issue being that language barrier callers are perceived to be limited in their judgement or capability by call-takers even when there is evidence that they are relaying critical information. In these instances, what the callers say can be misheard or unnecessarily repaired. 

We call for ambulance call centres to pay attention to issues of linguistic discrimination and accentism in language barrier calls with a view to promoting universal access to healthcare.