As we are all aware, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has made its way to all corners of the world. With everyone’s safety and well-being in mind, we want to maintain a safe environment for the health of our community, customers, and employees.
Given the uncertainty of the virus, we are taking proactive steps to address a number of business and community concerns. One concern, is educating and updating our community members who don’t use English about the coronavirus. To do this, we have created a separate webpage with important COVID-19 information in different languages with free resources for you to share. To see what else Hands Up is doing to adapt, see our statement on COVID-19 preparedness below.
Hands Up Communications is taking the following precautions:
- All business travel has been cancelled for the foreseeable future.
- We have increased the frequency of office cleanings to disinfect door handles, kitchen appliances, and other common surfaces.
- Hand sanitizer stations have been provided throughout our offices (frequent use of hand sanitizer is encouraged).
- We have shared best-practice health tips to reduce transmission as well as references to the CDC COVID-19 website.
- To help everyone avoid unnecessary touching, we are opting for elbow-bumps and other non-contact interactions.
Employees have been advised to:
- Stay home when they are sick.
- Wash their hands frequently with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds.
- Cover their mouths with tissues whenever they sneeze, and discard used tissues in the trash.
- Avoid people who are sick with respiratory symptoms.
- Clean frequently touched surfaces.
Interpreter Precautions:
- For everyone’s safety, our onsite interpreters have been instructed not to accept any interpreting assignments and notify us immediately if any of the following are true:
- If they have experienced any COVID-19 symptoms, including fever, cough, or shortness of breath.
- They have been in close contact with a person with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19, unless the suspected case was ruled out.
- If and interpreter has traveled to regions with known cases of COVID-19 within the past 14 days. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 website provides travel advisories, which are frequently updated.
- If they have developed a respiratory illness after returning from any national or international travel in the past 14 days.
- An interpreter has been in close contact with a person who has traveled internationally, including U.S. territories, and then developed a respiratory illness.
Interpreting Services
With this plan in place, we fully intend to resume services as normal. It is important to us that our customers and community members continue to have access to the language resources they need. Read more about telemed and remote interpreting options here.
Scheduling onsite appointments
At this time, our onsite interpreters are still available to our customers and local communities. Although, we will be taking additional precautions when accepting onsite appointments. To stay proactive, our scheduling department will ask requesters scheduling appointments if a consumer is experiencing symptoms of the Coronavirus. Again, it is incredibly important to Hands Up Communications to keep our staff safe and healthy.
Cancellations
Until May 1st, Hands Up Communications will not be charging for onsite interpretation cancellations related to the virus. As always, we are providing video and phone interpreting services for your convenience.
Back-up options: Video Remote and Over the Phone Interpreting
During this time, we understand you may need alternative access to American Sign Language or Foreign Language interpreters. As always, we will continue to offer alternative video and phone interpreting solutions. With that in mind, our remote interpreting solutions can scale and support you without any interruption to your current operations and services.
On top of being able to make scheduled VRI requests, we are also offering on-demand VRI services with an interpreter available at any time. If you are interested in another interpreting option, submit your request to use our video and phone interpreters. Submit your request here
Thank you for your continued trust in Hands Up Communications. Of course, feel free to send us a message or give us a call to discuss any questions or concerns you may have at 319-213-9920. Thank you.
Sue Tyrrell
CEO of Hands Up Communications