Officials in Anaheim are expected to implement live Spanish captioning for their online public meeting broadcasts early next year following two Voice of OC investigations – and pressure from a local nonprofit.

It’s a move that would create greater accessibility for residents to city council meetings in a city where more than half of the residents are Latino and about 59% of people speak a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census data.

Since the corruption scandal kicked off last year, residents have been increasingly showing up to give their public comments in Spanish at city council meetings.

In November, City Manager Jim Vanderpool said that for the past few months the city’s communication team has been exploring different ways to introduce live Spanish captioning on their online broadcasts of public meetings.

“We are now evaluating the purchase of additional broadcast equipment within the city manager’s authority. The equipment would allow for live Spanish subtitles for council meetings as well as for all our broadcasts on Anaheim TV,” he said at the Nov. 28 meeting.

Vanderpool added that they expect to implement the change in early 2024 after researching costs and looking at other cities’ experience using the equipment.

“Before moving forward we want to make sure that the equipment will be an effective way to reach those who may prefer Spanish subtitles,” he said.

Anaheim Makes Changes After Voice of OC Reporting

Vanderpool’s announcement comes about eight months after Voice of OC detailed how it’s almost impossible in OC for non-English speakers to watch online local city council meetings where elected officials make decisions that impact their quality of life.

It also comes after the nonprofit, Orange County Communities for Responsible Development, has been pushing city officials to live stream their city council meetings on YouTube in both English and Spanish like in Santa Ana – one of the only OC cities to do so.

[Read: Lost in Translation: OC Cities Shut Out Non-English Speakers From Online Public Meeting Broadcasts]

Vanderpool said in November that the city created and launched in September a YouTube channel specifically for live streaming city council meetings and providing live subtitles for people who are hearing impaired.

He added that YouTube only allows for Spanish subtitles after the meeting video is posted, but not during the live broadcast.

The YouTube live broadcasts in Anaheim come about a year and a half after a 2022 Voice of OC investigation – in collaboration with Chapman University students–  found most city governments in the county fail to provide live closed captioning of council meeting broadcasts – which not only disenfranchises the hard of hearing, but could open up cities to lawsuits.

[Read: Unheard: Orange County Shuts Out Deaf Residents From Public Meeting Broadcasts]

Will Anaheim Broadcast Meetings in Spanish in Real Time?

Live Spanish captioning might not be the only change coming to online video streams of Anaheim City Council meetings.

At the Nov. 28 meeting, City Councilman Carlos Leon called on city staff to explore real time Spanish translation broadcasts of the meetings.

“We might be able to explore real time translation versus just subtitles because I feel like there might be folks in the audience or of the public that may not know how to read and I don’t say that lightly, nor as a joke, but just as a serious suggestion,” he said.

Santa Ana does a live Spanish broadcast of their meetings – with city contracted interpreters set up in a room to watch and interpret the discussions in real time through a microphone.

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.