Hendersonville council adopts first citywide language access plan to expand interpretation and translation services

The Hendersonville City Council on July 2 adopted the city’s first language access plan, a five-year roadmap designed to help residents who do not primarily speak English access city services and emergency information.

Lisonbee Justice, the city’s communications director, and Melissa Escobar, executive director of TruBridge, jointly presented the plan and the data behind it. Justice said the Chapel Hill student analysis found almost 7% of city residents speak a language other than English at home and about 3% identify as limited English proficient. “This plan’s purpose is to ensure that all of our residents, visitors, and customers can meaningfully access our services regardless of the language that they speak,” Justice said.

The plan prioritizes Spanish for printed materials while keeping live interpretation available in more than 100 languages through the city’s contract with LanguageLine. It also calls for: identifying and translating vital documents; training staff on interpretation tools (including tablet-based video interpreters for ASL); assembling an internal language-access team to coordinate city departments; and tracking progress over time.

Escobar, who worked with staff in stakeholder meetings, said the plan grew from lessons learned during recent storms when some residents lacked information in their preferred language. “Families missed emergency alerts entirely because everything went out in English only,” Escobar said, adding the city and nonprofit partners translated critical messages during recent emergencies.

Council members asked how the city would handle speakers of less-common languages; Justice replied the LanguageLine contract and on-demand video tools make it possible to identify and connect speakers to interpreters quickly. A council member moved to adopt the plan; the motion passed by voice vote.

The plan’s first-year actions include formalizing policy, deploying interpretation resources across departments and selecting the first set of vital documents for translation. City staff said they will coordinate implementation with Henderson County’s parallel efforts on countywide language access.