In this essay I use discourse analysis to scrutinize and discuss language and metaphor use about interpreters on Swedish and Norwegian public service websites, editorial articles and scientific papers. Sweden is a country where access to interpreters is free for the individual in public service and healthcare encounters. Furthermore, public servants and healthcare personnel have a legislated obligation to ensure access to interpreters. Yet both research and the public debate point to both lack of interpreters and inadequate collaboration with existing interpreters. I argue in this essay that reasons for these problems related to both provision and collaboration may lie in the fact that language use in different sources are more or less subtle examples of discursive discrimination, which may in turn have an impact on the understanding or approach to collaboration with interpreters. I propose that the way to increasing awareness of language use and improve collaboration with interpreters is interprofessional collaboration already at undergraduate level education.