Long Beach will soon start construction on new translation booths in the Civic Chambers \u2014 to help improve access to public meetings for non-English speakers.<\/p>\n
As it stands, Long Beach provides various services aimed at improving language access, including interpretation services for City Council meetings, which are provided remotely from various locations within City Hall, according to a Thursday, Dec. 11, city memo.<\/p>\n
\u201cInterpreters are not stationed inside the chambers because of space constraints and need for a quiet space to be able to provide simultaneous interpretation as accurately as possible,\u201d the memo said. \u201cOral translation is transmitted through dedicated frequencies, accessed by the public through headsets distributed during the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
But while that system currently allows all meeting attendees to hear City Council proceedings in their native languages, there are some issues with it. Audio quality, the memo said, can be inconsistent, and some users experience disruptions when interpreters need to relocate to translate certain parts of meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cBest practices in the field emphasize the importance of interpreters having direct visual access to the proceedings so their interpretation can accurately reflect speakers\u2019 tone, body language and real-time interaction,\u201d the memo said. \u201cAdditionally, interpreting from an enclosed space allows interpreters to work freely and at an appropriate volume without risk of disrupting meeting attendees.\u201d<\/p>\n
So to fix that issue, the city is planning to begin construction on three new translation booths inside the Civic Chambers on Tuesday, Dec. 16.<\/p>\n
The booths will provide interpreters and attendees with a dedicated space to translate what people are saying, and will be supported by a new audio-visual booth next to one of the new booths.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving the AV booth inside the Civic Chambers,\u201d the memo said, \u201cwill allow the AV technicians to hear real-time audio and equalize the audio levels for an overall enhanced experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Construction will take place from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll work will cease, and the chambers will be returned to functioning city use, by 2:30 p.m. each day, allowing afternoon meetings to proceed as scheduled,\u201d the memo said. \u201cMeasures will be taken to ensure staff and community member safety, including blocking construction areas and covering construction materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project is expected to be finished around mid-February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach will soon start construction on new translation booths in the Civic Chambers \u2014 to help improve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,23,131,7188,133,132,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-95823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-long-beach","11":"tag-long-beach-city-council","12":"tag-long-beach-headlines","13":"tag-long-beach-news","14":"tag-los-angeles-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}