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News: Signing alerts: reaching the deaf population | deaf, alerts, population : TheMonitor.com
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.
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.