On Tuesday, Visit Bentonville launched a new American Sign Language interpreter grant that's now available for event organizers in the city. Kalene Griffith, executive director for Visit Bentonville, the city's tourism arm, says the new program will offer sign language interpreter services to groups that apply through their online application portal.
“Yeah, I think, you know, our focus is bringing in conferences into the area. Our role is to create this opportunity to enhance the economy in our community by bringing in conferences, meetings, conventions, sporting events. So if there is an ASL interpreter needed for those events that are creating that economic impact, I think that's our focus at this point. We're hoping to bring this added value for conventions and meetings, making our city a stronger choice for planners and organizers. So I think this is something we can do to create that. Our focus is the tourism side of things,” Griffith says.
Griffith says she got the idea for the new program after speaking with a conference attendee recently who is hearing impaired.
“I thought, wow, wait a minute—are we missing something here? I went back and started doing some research, and I thought this would be a great way to support our conferences, create an added value to our conferences, but also serve the needs of the deaf community and hard of hearing attendees.”
She says providing this option to events and conferences free of charge helps fulfill the city's mission to be more inclusive and offer support to programs that bring in tourists and hopefully boost the economy.
“The grant is also ensuring that attendees get the full aspect of the programming and the events. That's where I realized, when I was standing there talking to that person, it kind of saddened me to realize that they did not get to experience everything everybody got to experience. We want to see that when they're coming to Bentonville. They have a positive experience and get to experience every aspect of the convention or the meeting or the event in our community.”
The state of Arkansas has 52 certified ASL interpreters, according to the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, and only two of those are listed as working in Northwest Arkansas. Griffith says this program also opens up opportunities for more professional ASL interpreters.
The first grant was awarded just last week for the screening and discussion of a local documentary at Skylight Cinema, and Griffith says they're working with the Sign Language Interpreting Network of Northwest Arkansas to source and place interpreters.
“This is our first time doing it, and so I just thought, let's see. We may need something more. So far, when we've talked to them, there are interpreters in our community. We've only done one event. I think the big thing that we're seeing, and what I was hearing from people, was we're hoping to remove those financial and logistical barriers for the organizers because we're connecting them with the ASL contact. We're also covering the expense so they can have that ASL interpreter at their event. I think we're taking two stress levels off of an event organizer at this point.”
The grant provides access to and covers the cost of interpreters from Visit Bentonville's discretionary funds. Griffith says any organization hosting an event in Bentonville and looking for an interpreter is eligible to apply, with only a few restrictions for now.
“Our main criteria is making sure that it's a tourism event and that it's creating an economic impact for our community and what the needs are for it. This is our first time doing it. We may have to come down to different criteria in the future, but right now, what our dollars can be spent on, in the law, has to engage tourism.”
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