翻译技术速递Boise government to up language access
博伊西政府将提高语言准入
The city of Boise, Idaho is currently looking to improve language access, according to local news site BoiseDev. Right now, the municipal government purchases telephone interpreting (OPI) from Monterey, California-based company LanguageLine Solutions. Mayoral covid-19 alerts have been translated into eight languages. The police department works with a network of what BoiseDev calls “translators.” Select utility bill inserts and a mayoral ‘State of the City’ speech are also available in Spanish — but that’s it, the site reports, creating what community engagement director Maria Weeg calls room for improvement: “We’re doing compliance really well,” she told BoiseDev, “We’re doing a good job with the ‘I Speak’ [language identification] cards and translating our documents, but we need to go to the next level and make sure we’re providing information in the languages and ways of communicating our community is asking for.”
More than ten percent of Boise residents do not speak English at home, according to the city’s last US Census. Nearly five percent of residents speak Spanish, 2.2 percent another Indo-European language — numbers Weeg expects to increase when 2020 census results are announced.
At a February city council meeting, the town discussed its plans to grow language access — which leaves room for language services providers (LSP’s) to add Boise as a future client. Translation is already line-itemed in the municipal budget as the city now enters “the planning stages of an evaluation of what services to be offered in what languages,” BoiseDev’s Margaret Carmel reports. Early conversations with public-facing municipal employees indicate Swahili and Farsi translation may be in high demand. The city hopes to improve American Sign Language (ASL) accessibility as well.
Once this needs assessment is complete, the city intends to draw up a resolution outlining recommended language access strategies for Boise’s city council to approve. Purchasing would come after that, with policy updates every three to five years.
据当地新闻网站Boisedev报道，爱达荷州博伊西市目前正在寻求改善语言的使用。目前，市政府从加利福尼亚州蒙特利市的LanguageLine Solutions公司购买电话口译服务(OPI)。市长covid-19警报已翻译成八种语言。警察部门与BoiseDev所称的“翻译人员”网络合作。选择的公共设施账单插页和市长的“市情”演讲也有西班牙语--但仅此而已，该网站报道，这创造了社区参与主管Maria Weeg所称的改进空间：“我们在遵守方面做得很好，”她告诉BoiseDev，“我们在‘我说’（语言识别）卡和翻译我们的文件方面做得很好，但我们需要更进一步，确保我们以社区所要求的语言和交流方式提供信息。”
根据博伊西市上次的美国人口普查，超过10%的博伊西居民在家不会说英语。近5%的居民说西班牙语，2.2%的居民说另一种印欧语系语言，Weeg预计2020年人口普查结果公布后，这一数字还会增加。
在二月份的一次市议会会议上，该镇讨论了其增加语言访问的计划--这为语言服务提供商（LSP）将博伊西作为未来的客户留出了空间。Boisedev的Margaret Carmel报道，翻译已经被列入市政预算，因为该市现在正进入“评估以何种语言提供何种服务的规划阶段”。与面向公众的市政雇员的早期交谈表明，斯瓦希里语和波斯语翻译的需求可能很大。这座城市还希望改善美国手语的无障碍性。
一旦这项需求评估完成，该市打算起草一项决议，概述建议的语言获取战略，供博伊西市议会批准。之后将会购买，政策每三到五年更新一次。
以上中文文本为机器翻译，存在不同程度偏差和错误，请理解并参考英文原文阅读。
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