City of Austin staff presented the Language Access Plan for Citywide Emergencies to the Mayor's Committee for People with Disabilities on Feb. 7, describing steps the city will take to provide timely, accurate emergency communications to people with limited English proficiency and to deaf, deafblind and hard‑of‑hearing residents.

"The purpose of this plan is to establish a citywide language access protocol to promote meaningful access to programs, activities, services, and information ... during the preparation, the emergency response, and the recovery phase," said David Alcorda, community engagement specialist with the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM).

Presenters described three central concepts used in the plan: translations (written materials), interpretation (verbal/ASL), and threshold languages (a regularly updated tiered list of the city’s most common non‑English languages). Staff said the city will prioritize translating critical life‑safety emergency alerts into the identified threshold languages and using interpretation for press conferences and public meetings that involve emergency officials.

HSEM staff described an Accessible Hazard Alert System (AHAS) produced in partnership with DeafLink that posts emergency alert videos featuring an American Sign Language signer, with on‑screen transcriptions for screen‑reader users. "The system is directly linked to our alerts webpage, and includes all alerts and videos that feature someone signing the message in American Sign Language," Alcorda said.

Staff said the city maintains a bank of prewritten translated emergency messages for common events — for instance, cold‑weather shelter activations — so alerts can be posted quickly in multiple languages. They also described interpretation services for public events, a 24/7 vendor network for translations, and in‑person and virtual interpretation for departments likely to respond first in an emergency (Austin Public Health, Austin Water, Austin Energy, EMS).

Presenters said outreach and training activities already underway include monthly preparedness pop‑ups across city council districts, an annual preparedness fair in September, Ready Together trainings offered quarterly in English, Spanish and ASL, and a neighborhood preparedness guide translated into several languages. Staff noted that the alerts page is available at www.austintexas.gov/alerts with links to other languages.

Committee members asked about past performance during Winter Storm Yuri and subsequent activations; staff said they have limited historical data prior to current staff but that recent activations included ASL interpreters at press conferences and that outreach to the deaf community has increased through events such as the Texas School for the Deaf homecoming. Gabriel Adeoyano and other commissioners raised questions about ensuring equivalence between English transcriptions and ASL videos for deaf and deafblind users; staff invited ongoing feedback and offered contact information for follow‑up.

Staff also described coordination with state and county registries (the presenters referenced signing up for the state registry for people needing special assistance; presenters identified this as the Texas Department of Emergency Management registry) and said they will work with other jurisdictions to improve cross‑agency communications for the medically vulnerable during thresholds that activate county or state resources.

No formal committee action was taken; staff said they would share threshold‑language lists and contact information with committee staff for follow‑up.