SOC Language Solutions

Love this! It's so exciting to see what the youth of today are capable of.

A 17-year-old created a free app that makes Disney+ films more accessible for deaf children "I think accessibility is so important, in general, and this seems like quite a basic need," Satow told Sag Harbor Express. "So many comments have been, 'I can't believe this didn't exist before,' which is surprising, I thought, because it is so needed."Testimonials on the SignUp website speak to ho...

What a great idea! Hopefully this project can continue to grow.

DC Metropolitan Police Department Launches Multilingual Phone Tree in Collaboration with LanguageLine Solutions The Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has announced the implementation of a multilingual phone tree to greet the District's limited-English proficient (LEP) and non/no-English proficient (NEP) persons in their language of choice.

Such a positive update to this situation:

WSJ News Exclusive | Afghan Interpreter Who Helped Rescue Joe Biden in 2008 Escapes Afghanistan After a personal plea to U.S. president, weeks in hiding and a clandestine evacuation, Aman Khalili and his family crossed the border into Pakistan.

Marie Wilcox, Who Saved Her Native Language From Extinction, Dies at 87 The subject of a Times Op-Doc, she was the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni and spent 20 years producing the first complete dictionary of its vocabulary.

Love this!
“I know I’m someone who represents New Zealand globally in a way, and in making an album about where I’m from, it was important to me to be able to say: this makes us who we are down here.”

Behind the scenes of Lorde's mini album in Māori, New Zealand's indigenous language In the song “Oceanic Feeling” from her new album, “Solar Power,” singer Lorde alludes to a jump into a lake at Bulli Point, a beloved swimming spot in her

So important!
"Limited English Proficient parents have a legal right to have access to information in their preferred languages. This is not an optional service for the NYCDOE, it’s the law. The NYCDOE must take steps to ensure that every student, regardless of the language they speak, has access to the same educational opportunities as other students."

Opinion: This Year, NYC Schools Must Invest in Language Access to Help Immigrant Students Catch Up ‘Limited English Proficient (LEP) parents have a legal right to have access to information in their preferred languages. This is not an optional service for the NYC Department of Education, it’s the law.’

Terrifying- especially in recent news of the difficulty to escape increasing due to the Taliban. "Some Afghan military interpreters and other close U.S. allies, a stated priority group for evacuation from Afghanistan, are being turned away from the Kabul airport by American officials in order to give priority to U.S. citizens and green card holders, a State Department official said on Monday."

U.S. Is Turning Some Allies Away From Kabul Airport, Official Says The Pentagon is deploying helicopters and Special Forces troops beyond the airport as President Biden considers pushing back his Aug. 31 deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal. Violent clashes continued.

So cool!

Dedham SoulCycle location starts teaching spin classes with ASL interpretation - The Boston Globe Instructor Heather Mottau started learning American Sign Language when she was 13 years old and has since brought her talents to SoulCycle to make classes accessible for hard of hearing students.

"After this viral moment, Black and deaf content creators hope to see the spotlight on themselves next time, and at least have this be an opportunity for people to learn more about accessibility. 'I want people to think of what the deaf community goes through every day,” Ms. Sutton said. “Learn A.S.L. to provide access, not so you can do a song that goes viral.'"

The A.S.L. Interpretation of ‘WAP’ Was TikTok Gold. It’s Also a Problem. A lively American Sign Language interpretation of Megan Thee Stallion’s performance at Lollapalooza flooded social media, reigniting the frustrations of Black deaf content creators.

So cool! Check out this article about emojis and how they can operate as nonverbals in written communication:

https://pos.li/2jbfx2

"If an emoji replaces a word in a sentence, people comprehend it without issue. If an emoji that doesn’t make sense is added to a sentence, we spend more time trying to make sense of it, just as we do with nonsensical words."

Emojis aren’t debasing language – they’re enriching it | Benjamin Weissman With a new set about to be released, it’s time to consider how these symbols enhance the way we communicate, says cognitive scientist Benjamin Weissman

Wow- imagine trying to interpret and transcribe using hieroglyphics 😳

"Hieroglyphic writing doesn't have any spaces between the words, and there's no punctuation. That means that readers have to have a good grasp of ancient Egyptian grammar and know something about the context of a message in order to be able to tell individual words, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and chapters apart"

8 Facts About Ancient Egypt's Hieroglyphic Writing The script found on the insides of ancient Egyptian temples, monuments and tombs represents a complex remnant of history.