Board President Jackie Goldberg, center, said the idea of adding signing to the meetings had come up in the past, but that she’d most recently mentioned it to the district’s superintendent, left of center, about a week before the last board meeting of the 23-24 school year.The Los Angeles Unified School District has added American Sign Language interpretation to its Board of Education meetings. There are about 1,800 deaf and hard of hearing students in the district.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has added American Sign Language interpretation to its Board of Education meetings. “By incorporating ASL into board meetings, we not only embrace inclusivity and accessibility for our deaf and hard of hearing stakeholders, but also foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of linguistic diversity,” wrote an LAUSD spokesperson in response to LAist’s questions about the new interpretation service.
She said the process to request an interpreter can take several days, where a hearing attendee can show up in person or tune into the meeting online and understand the content shared in spoken English with no additional effort. LAUSD also streams the board meetings live in Spanish and provides in-person interpretation.