The Census Already Started in Alaska. Native Translators Are Working to Prevent Undercount Repeat – By Andrea Noble (Nextgov) / Feb 3 2020
Across the country, tribal and non-English speaking communities are creating guidance and messages in a variety of languages to encourage Census 2020 participation.
As census takers deploy to villages in rural Alaska this month as the vanguard of the 2020 count, they face numerous obstacles, including extreme winter weather and the difficulties of reaching isolated communities.
But one barrier local organizers hope won’t be as prominent a hurdle as in years past is language. That’s because they’ve been working over the last few months to create public services announcements and translate census guides and materials into four Alaska Native languages to improve outreach efforts in traditionally hard-to-count indigenous communities.
“We felt it was critical to have the information available in the languages of the state,” said Erin Willahan, a consultant hired by Alaska Public Interest Research Group (AKPIRG) to support local census efforts.
Across the country, state and local groups like AKPIRG are focused on improving the response to the decennial count through outreach in languages other than English.
The Census Bureau translated its 2020 questionnaire and assistance into 12 languages other than English: Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, Tagalog, Polish, French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Japanese. Language guides and glossaries are available in 59 languages altogether, but Navajo is the only native language included.
Continue to article: https://www.nextgov.com/analytics-data/2020/02/census-already-started-alaska-native-translators-are-working-prevent-undercount-repeat/162823/
