ID: Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, logo for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services featuring three people, arms interconnected, inside an outline of the state of Washington. Home and Community Living Administration

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The Department of Social and Health Services is excited to share that the work of the Substitute House Bill 2221 proviso workgroup has concluded, and a report has been submitted to the Washington State Legislature. 

This is a special project focusing on researching solutions for the shortage of American Sign Language, ProTactile, and Trilingual Sign Language interpreters.

The report, titled “Report to the Legislature: ESSB 5950 Sec 204 (47) Laws of the 2024 Legislative Session. Establish a work group to address the statewide shortage of qualified and certified American Sign Language interpreters, ProTactile, and Trilingual interpreters,” is NOW available at the Legislature’s website.

The direct link to the report is here. The ASL version of the report will be available in September.

If you have any questions about the legislative report, please contact Earnest Covington at [email protected].

To review previous announcements and publications regarding the goals, progress and outcomes, and what the recommendations may be, please see the following links.

Links:

1. Read the House Bill Report on HB 2221.
2. Read more about the Proviso Work group.
3. Read more about the Work Group’s goals.
4. Watch the recap of the public town hall introducing the Work Group on December 18, 2024.
5. Watch the Solutions Summit Recap (February 1-2, 2025).

Watch the Work Group Reports

1. (February 4, 2025), and
2. (February 10, 2025)
3. View the Legislative Report recommendations (May 2025).

Please contact Morgan Jericho at [email protected] for any questions or further information on the project methodology.

Thank you for your collaboration and partnership.

Accessibility: We are dedicated to ensuring equitable and inclusive access. Our meetings and events are available in ASL, spoken English, and with captioning. Additionally, other signed and spoken languages are offered. For more information or specific requests, please contact us at [email protected].

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