ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke City is tackling language barriers by offering new language access cards.
The cards are now in three city libraries, the municipal building and the Department of Social Services.
They are available in 10 different languages and are used to request a translator.
Roanoke is one of only three refugee resettlement cities in Virginia, so the city is noticing an uptick in hundreds of new diverse residents.
“If you are in the school system they often use a different interpretation system that we do,” Language Access Coordinator Katie Hedrick said. “But they can still show the card to someone and say ‘hey I want to have a voice in my kids education’ and then you call an interpreter.”
Hedrick said people can also print the cards from the city’s website online or take photos of them to carry around.