Signing alerts: reaching the deaf population
April 6, 2008
Jackie Leatherman
EDINBURG – Hidalgo County’s deaf and hard-of-hearing should receive
emergency alerts quicker now a state program is in effect.
Hidalgo and Cameron counties are among 22 coastal counties to soon
start broadcasting emergency alerts on TV in sign language – possibly
by May 1.
“They might be able to get out on their own, but not if they don’t
know,” said Hidalgo County spokeswoman Cari Lambrecht.
“We are missing a big part of the population.”
The state uses $300,000 of U.S. Department of Homeland Security
funding to contract with Deaf Link Inc., a San Antonio company that
provides the interpretation through technology it developed.
The company provides access to generic warnings in sign language
ready to be aired on local television stations. Before, local station
executives had to hire a live person and pay them hourly to stand by
and translate.
The new system is a “step forward in technology,” said Rose Landa, an
interpreter coordinator at the University of Texas Brownsville. She
said it empowers the deaf population to find out alerts on their own
rather than having to rely on family members or neighbors, and to do
so quicker.
A contract is pending with the state to allow translated alerts from
local communities, as well – such as the fires that recently burned in
the area, said Bruce Whiteaker, broadcast project manager at Deaf
Link.
“Many of the people who are deaf are reliant on American Sign
Language to the extent that they can’t read closed captions,”
Whiteaker said. “(They) complain that they go too fast or are written
at a level beyond their skills.”
Whiteaker says studies say that roughly 10 percent of any given
population is hard of hearing, partially deaf or profoundly deaf.
That would tally Rio Grande Valley’s hard-of-hearing population at
about 140,000, he said, though those are just estimated figures.
Jackie Leatherman covers Hidalgo County government and general
assignments at The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4424.
Link:
http://www.themonitor.com/news/deaf_10653___article.html/alerts_population.html
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