Spanish and Chinese get most of the attention in language access conversations, but many California communities also include residents who read Tagalog, Punjabi or Armenian. This article covers how to offer Tagalog, Punjabi and Armenian live translation at public meetings, and what to do when a language your residents need isn't available.
Deciding whether to add Tagalog, Punjabi or Armenian
The best decisions start with local information rather than assumptions. Useful sources:
- American Community Survey data. SB 707 uses this data, specifically residents who speak English less than "very well," to determine which languages eligible bodies translate agendas into, up to three. It's also a good guide for caption languages.
- Front-counter and call-center staff. They know which languages residents use when they ask for help.
- Community organizations. Cultural associations, faith communities and nonprofits can tell you who isn't showing up to meetings and why.
- Past requests. Track requests for translated materials or interpretation.
You can run up to eight languages per meeting, so adding Tagalog, Punjabi or Armenian doesn't mean dropping Spanish or another language you already offer. You can also vary languages by meeting, for example adding Punjabi for a hearing on an item a particular community has followed closely.
SB 707 does not itself require live captions; translated captions are a practical way to support its language-access and participation goals. Check with your city attorney or county counsel about what applies to your body.
What to know about each language
Tagalog translation
Tagalog is supported for live translated captions, the phone page and transcripts. Before you launch, ask community partners whether residents would use Tagalog captions on their phones and how they'd prefer to hear about them. That conversation is useful in itself.
Punjabi translation
Punjabi is supported. Because Punjabi is written in more than one script in different communities, show a sample to a fluent reader in your community and confirm it's what residents expect to read. Related languages are also supported, including Hindi and Urdu, if your community data points there.
Armenian translation
Armenian is supported. As with every language, have a fluent reader review a test meeting or transcript, especially for local names and civic terms like "conditional use permit" or "consent calendar" that may not translate neatly.
Other languages often requested in California are also on the list, including Persian (Farsi), Dari, Pashto, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Russian, Ukrainian and more. The full list is on our features page.
When a language isn't supported
Hmong and Khmer are not supported, because Amazon Translate doesn't offer them. If your community includes Hmong or Khmer speakers, plan other ways to include them:
- Translated written materials, such as meeting notices and summaries of major items, prepared by qualified translators.
- A human interpreter for meetings or hearings where these residents are likely to attend or speak.
- Partnerships with community organizations that can share information and help residents participate.
SB 707 asks eligible bodies to "reasonably assist" members of the public who want to translate a meeting or receive interpretation, as long as it doesn't disrupt the meeting. Bodies aren't required to provide interpretation themselves. Ask counsel how this applies to you.
Setting up and checking quality
- Add SentraCaptions to your encoder. It's one more destination on Pearl, OBS, vMix or others, over RTMP or SRT. No new hardware.
- Select languages for the meeting. Pick Tagalog, Punjabi, Armenian and any others, up to eight.
- Load your glossary. Add council member names, streets, neighborhoods and program names so English captions spell them right before translation.
- Run a test. Play back a past meeting or hold a short test and invite a fluent reader for each language to review the phone page and chamber screen.
- Collect feedback. Ask reviewers which terms come out wrong and add or adjust glossary entries.
Translation quality varies by language. Speech recognition is English, with Spanish speakers at public comment recognized too, so a resident speaking Tagalog, Punjabi or Armenian at the podium won't be captioned in that language. Every screen labels the captions as automatic and says they may contain errors.
Getting the word out
- Post a short notice in each language on your public meetings webpage with instructions for scanning the QR code.
- Ask community partners to share it through their own channels.
- Keep the QR code visible on the chamber screen and mention it when the meeting opens.
- After the meeting, share TXT transcripts in each language with residents who ask. Transcripts aren't official minutes, but they help people catch up.