Live Spanish translation of Elgin City Council meetings is now being offered under a pilot program designed to make government more accessible to those not fluent in English.
The city has been providing AI captions on its YouTube videos of council meetings to accommodate its Latino residents, which make up more than half of the city’s population.
Now the company providing those captions has software that can do live interpretation at public meetings, according to Assistant City Manager Karina Nava.
“Where YouTube captions were AI-generated and one-directional, this service is far more expansive: live, two-way and accessible from a mobile device,” Nava said. “Residents can attend a city council meeting, scan a QR code, and follow along through a live transcript or by listening through headphones in Spanish.”
For those viewing at home, the translated transcript is visible on screen as well, Nava said.
Spanish speakers who want to follow along remotely can go to elginil.gov/interpret once the meeting goes live, she said.
The biggest change is during the public comment portion of council meetings, Nava said.
“Residents can now approach the podium and speak in Spanish while the city council and viewing public follow along in English in real time,” she said. “When residents sign up to speak, they are asked for their preferred language so staff can coordinate the display at the right moment.”
Elgin launched the program at the city council’s Feb. 25 meeting.
The first person to try out the new system was Amairani Jarvis, a community organizer for Centro de Información. Jarvis spoke in Spanish about her support for an inclusion and diversity ordinance the city council is discussing.
“I am here to talk about the families,” Jarvis said, as her words were translated in English on a screen.
The pilot program went well on its first day, Nava said. “Staff is still fine-tuning and will continue testing over the next several months, gathering feedback and documenting any limitations along the way.”
Currently, the software offers only Spanish interpretation, but additional languages will be explored as the pilot program progresses, she said.
“The city is constantly exploring ways to remove barriers to civic participation that encourage all its residents to engage with their local government,” she said. “Offering real-time interpretation during city council meetings is one way the city is working toward that goal.”
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
