Amid a hefty bill focused on the state’s natural disaster response is a provision to better inform Vermonters who can’t hear or speak little English.

By Holly Sullivan

Amid a hefty bill focused on the state’s natural disaster response is a provision to better inform Vermonters who can’t hear or speak little English.

Under S.310, all state emergency communications would by default be accompanied by language assistance services, like an American Sign Language interpreter and live translation or closed-captioning. The provision aims to help people who are deaf, hard of hearing or aren’t proficient in English.

“Vermonters should not have to go on a scavenger hunt to locate that one channel that has all the accessibility features,” said Laura Siegel, director of deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind services for the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living.

Siegel was speaking to legislators April 17 via sign language, her words relayed by an interpreter. “Oftentimes, they aren’t always available until much later,” she said. “For instance, I wasn’t able to create a video in ASL sharing useful resources until midway through the flooding recovery period.” 

To help prevent any gaps between state-provided services and what people at home see, the bill would have TV broadcasters team up with officials and experts to draw up best practices and make sure everything runs smoothly.

“The pandemic taught this town how to respond quickly with various languages, but something needs to be set in place so this can happen everywhere,” ​​Ray Coffey, community services director of Winooski, said during the same meeting. “I think as the state gets more diverse, as we see language variety spreading broadly across the state, it’s really important that there’s a consistent approach there, especially as we look at regional and statewide emergencies.”

The state attempted to accommodate all residents during emergency communications in last summer’s flooding. But according to one of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, these efforts were “well-intentioned but badly executed” because broadcast media weren’t in on the plan.

“They had sign language interpretation at all of (the press conferences),” she told representatives April 4, “but the broadcasters often would zoom in on the governor and cut the sign language interpreter out of the picture.” 

Alison Segar, director of the Vermont Language Justice Project, has been working on eliminating communication barriers independent from government since the height of Covid-19. Her organization created videos with vital information about the state’s pandemic response in 18 different languages.

“If we are going to be a state that welcomes people here to Vermont, we need to have an infrastructure that is able to adequately reach out to all peoples when there is an emergency that is life-threatening,” she told representatives during an April 17 meeting. “Our videos did that during Covid and did that during the flooding. In this current time with climate change, we need to be ready for, ‘What happens next?’”

The provision will ensure the organization’s efforts will exist in the state no matter what, Segar said later in an interview.

“Our money’s running out,” she said. “If there’s another pandemic tomorrow, we’re not going to be able to respond. To have it written into this bill so that it’s more than just translated materials on a website would be really, really helpful.”

After all, she said, “Google Translate is getting better, but it’s really, really not a good way to translate information.”

Vermont Association of Broadcasters Executive Director Wendy Mays voiced her support for the bill April 10. 

She discussed the nitty-gritty details of television production, explaining that all broadcasters are already required to have closed-captioning, but viewers might not see the option if they’re watching a stream or have an old TV. 

Though television broadcasting systems work independently, Mays said leaders she’s heard from are excited to collaborate with the state to reach all residents. 

“We invite everybody to the table to develop best practices,” she said.

The Community News Service is a program in which University of Vermont students work with professional editors to provide content for local news outlets at no cost.