The Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing (MNCDHH) is pleased to announce that we have launched our accessible emergency communications campaign. 

This campaign is designed to increase media awareness of the importance of including American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters onscreen during weather-related emergencies and other disasters. 

To carry out the campaign, MNCDHH signed up with Leer Communications & Consultants. With their help, MNCDHH has done the following:

• Distributed a letter to our media partners, which alerts them to the issue and asks for their participation.
• Created a web page with best practices, an explanation about why this is important to deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing Minnesotans, and examples of suggested screen framing. 
• Filmed a mock news conference, which shows how the ASL interpreting team is appropriately used. The video is subtitled in English. Many thanks to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Rosa Ramirez, Jaemi Hagen, Kathy Manlapas, Maddy Schopf, Jessalyn Akerman-Frank, Robb Leer, James Paul Beldon, Patty Gordon, and MASTCOM.

There is more to do but this is a great start. All of the materials can be found on MNCDHH's Accessible Emergency Communications page.

If you have any questions, please contact Anne Sittner Anderson at anne.sittner-anderson@state.mn.us.