---

Hurricane Irma Warnings Issued in 4 Languages in South Florida

September 8, 2017

As Hurricane Irma continues to wreak havoc in the Caribbean, Florida officials are urging residents to evacuate and seek shelter. As the storm is expected to reach the Florida Keys as early as Friday evening, it is critical to reach the everyone in the area. To communicate with Miami’s diverse population, warnings have been issued in English, Spanish, Creole and American Sign Language (ASL). With the assistance of ASL interpreters, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community has received these important warnings. Breaking down language barriers is crucial in emergency situations, as these populations need to understand where to go and how best to protect themselves.

Watch yesterday’s press conference here

“it is life threatening, this is not a storm you can sit and wait through.”Florida Governor, Rick Scott

Hurricane Irma is the largest Atlantic hurricane recorded to date. With winds clocking in at 185 mph, Florida officials are not taking chances. While shelters have been set-up, Florida Governor Rick Scott emphasized that “it is life threatening, [and] this is not a storm you can sit and wait through.”

According to the New York Times, Irma has taken the lives of 19 people collectively in the French Caribbean islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Barbuda and Anguilla.

At IU, our thoughts and prayers are with the families affected by this tragedy. If you’re in the south Florida area, here are some resources to stay safe:

---

Hurricane Irma Safety Information

Miami Evacuation Q&A Storm Planning Zones Shelter Information	Tampa Shelter Locations Special Needs Shelters and Sandbag Information	Naples & Collier County Evacuation Zones Pet-Friendly Shelters Fire and Rescue
Cape Coral/Lee County Shelter and Travel Information		Gainesville Special Needs, Pet-Friendly and General Population Shelters

Share this Post

Contact Us

Making Connections Nationwide. For more information about Interpreters Unlimited and our interpretation and translation services, please call 800-726-9891.

---

Accessible Communication for the Deaf is working with Miami officials to issue Hurricane warnings to the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community

October 6, 2016

This week, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and city council members issued several press conferences in light of Hurricane Matthew’s approach to south Florida. If you’ve seen the latest coverage, you probably noticed a sign language interpreter next to the podium. This morning, Lisa Campbell, senior director of Accessible Communication for the Deaf (ACD) interpreted the storm warnings during a press conference.

“There is a sense of neighborly duty when working with local emergency services in times like this.”Lisa Campbell, Senior Director, ACD

American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters are crucial in emergency situations. Imagine knowing there is an emergency but not being able to understand pertinent and life-saving information? “There is a sense of neighborly duty when working with local emergency services in times like this,” says Campbell. “Knowing the information I’m interpreting can save someone’s life is truly a humbling feeling.”

Watch Lisa in this morning’s news conference

---

About Lisa

Lisa Campbell started to study sign language at the age of 13 from a friend. Since then, she’s immersed herself in the Deaf community where she found her passion for helping people. It’s her devotion to the field that opened the door to a world full of opportunities. With encouragement from friends and family, she and her husband Brian started Accessible Communication for the Deaf in Fort Lauderdale in 2013 and Tampa in 2016. In her free time, Lisa loves going to the beach, wine tasting and spending time with family. Her commitment to ASL and the Florida community drive her to succeed and knock down language barriers each and every day.

Mastering ASL requires tremendous dedication, focus, practice and fluency in not one but two languages: English and American Sign Language. All sign language interpreters contracted by ACD are professionally trained and hold credentials from the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID).

Hurricane Matthew Safety Information

Here is some information for you to stay safe if you’re in Miami:

A tropical storm warning remains in effect for Miami-Dade County. Miami officials urge residents to stay indoors and stay safe as the storm nears the coastline. The Emergency Operations Center is fully staffed and in operation; police, fire and rescue will be available until winds reach 55 mph. In the event of a power outage, please call 311 or 800-4-outage.

Four Shelters Open in Miami (8,000 capacity)

Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School 1414 NE 215th Street Miami, FL 33179	Booker T. Washington Senior High 1200 Northwest 6th Avenue Miami, FL 33125
Robert Morgan Educational Center 18180 SW 122nd Ave. Miami, FL 33177	Darwin Fuchs Pavilion (Pet Friendly) 10901 SW 24th St. Miami, FL 33165

Share this Post

About ACD

>Accessible Communication for the Deaf is a sign language interpreting company with locations in Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, Florida. In 2014, ACD was acquired by Interpreters Unlimited and operates under the IU Group of companies: Interpreters Unlimited, Accessible Communication for the Deaf, Albors & Alnet and Arkansas Spanish Interpreters and Translators. Today, ACD proudly serves school districts, government departments, hospitals and medical facilities, law firms and other businesses with professional in-person and video remote American Sign Language services. For more information please visit www.acdasl.com

---

Contact Us

Making Connections Nationwide. For more information about Interpreters Unlimited, please call 800-726-9891.

The phrase translation services probably conjure up a certain image in your mind. Like many people, I’d guess that you will think of a large assembly like the United Nations where there are people from different countries speaking dozens of languages. You’d not be wrong with this image. The United Nations assembly is an excellent example of how important simultaneous translation services are.

So what are simultaneous translation services? Here’s a description from the European commission, another body where simultaneous translation is vitally important. The interpreter sits in a soundproof room and,

“The speaker in the meeting room speaks into a microphone, the interpreter receives the sound through a headset and renders the message into a microphone almost simultaneously. The delegate in the meeting room selects the relevant channel to hear the interpretation in the language of his/her choice.”

Simultaneous translation is not a science. It’s very much an art. Translators must be able to listen to what a speaker is saying and, for all practical purposes, translate immediately what is being said into another language. This is a very demanding, highly skilled job. You can imagine in assemblies like the United Nations, accuracy is all important. But of course with any act of translation there is room for subjective interpretation. It’s difficult to eliminate this.

I say that translation is for all practical purposes immediate. To be technically accurate translation cannot be simultaneous and certainly cannot be immediate. There has to be some delay. The translator has to hear what is said and only when the general meaning of the sentence is understood can she start to translate. Some sentences – especially those where there is a large gap between the subject and verb – only make sense when the sentence is concluded. This gives an idea of just how challenging it is to be a simultaneous translator.

It’s not just political assemblies that will use simultaneous translation services. You are likely to find translators employed at industrial conferences, international sales and training seminars, trade shows and legal conferences. Events like these could not run without simultaneous translation services. As uniVerse Language Solutions explains,

“In every case, the use of simultaneous interpreters is pivotal to the success of the event, since among all the specific goals on the agenda, one of the prime objectives is to achieve an effective and accurate communication.”

In a world where there are hundreds of different languages, simultaneous translation services will always be important.

---

Contact Us

Making Connections Nationwide.  For more information about simultaneous interpretation for conferences, please send us a message or call 800-726-9891.

[contact-form-7]