BOSTON - Wednesday,
October 20, 2021 - Mayor Kim Janey today announced that the City is
now accepting applications to hire its first full-time, in-house American
Sign Language (ASL) Interpreter as part of the COVID-19 equity in recovery
efforts. This unique governmental position will significantly increase
access to City communications for members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
community. Mayor Janey announced the City would create this position at the
City of Boston’s annual Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Day
celebration in July.
“This new position
adds to all of the City’s efforts to ensure access and equity for every
Boston resident with any type of disability as Boston continues to reopen,”
Mayor Janey said. “From distributing clear face masks to front line workers
so residents who rely on lip-reading and facial cues could communicate with
others, to distributing ramps to restaurants so that people with mobility
impairments could access on-street outdoor dining, the City of Boston is
committed to accessibility and inclusion.”
ASL is mainly used
by people in the United States who identify as “Deaf” (with a capital D).
The capital D signifies that they were born deaf and/or they are part of
the Deaf Culture. ASL is an integral piece of Deaf Culture, and it is used
mainly by people who grow up using it as their primary language. ASL is its
own complete language, wholly different from spoken English.
“During the
pandemic, communication from government officials was more frequent and
more important than ever,” said Disability Commissioner Kristen McCosh.
“The situation and our response to it was changing regularly. Real-time
access to updated information in residents’ primary language was a matter
of life-and-death. We are proud that we were able to secure ASL
interpretation for 100% of the Mayor’s COVID-19 press conferences during
the state of emergency, but it has been difficult to sustain that success
rate. Our Deaf and Hard of Hearing neighbors deserve better, and this
position will allow us to do better.”
The ASL Interpreter position
will be responsible for providing live interpretation/transliteration
during Mayoral press conferences as well as public events and meetings. In
addition, the Interpreter will produce signed videos translating Boston.gov
webpages and other text-based online content.
The position has
been posted on the City of Boston’s Career Center and can be viewed here.
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