How Cultural Diversity in the NWS Workforce is Training AI to Address Chinese Language Accessibility Gaps

In order for the National Weather Service (NWS) to accomplish its mission to protect life and property and enhance the national economy, and to achieve the strategic vision of a Weather-Ready Nation (WRN), the agency needs to address communication gaps in order to reach people with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). This is especially true during and leading up to hazardous weather. As noted in a New York State Attorney General Office’s press release on March 1, 2022, “currently, warnings from the NWS, which are issued in advance of a severe weather or water event, are not accessible in any language except for English and Spanish.” In August 2021, the significance of this challenge was demonstrated as excessive rainfall, brought by Post-Tropical Cyclone Ida, resulted in at least 18 drowning deaths in New York due to flash flooding. In the Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods, where the majority of Ida-related flooding deaths occurred, nearly all the victims were immigrants from Asia with LEP, indicating that they may not have fully understood the NWS alerts available in the languages offered.

In addition to U.S. residents that are considered to be LEP, overseas visitors are often unfamiliar with the weather in the U.S., how varied it can be, and the dangers it presents. The three million Chinese visitors in 2018 accounted for 7.5% of the total number of foreign visitors to come to the U.S. In Arizona, the number of Chinese tourists is projected to surpass Europeans, making them the primary overseas tourists. As a result, NWS Flagstaff translates safety information for Chinese tourists visiting the Grand Canyon National Park. According to the Department of Commerce, “international travel [tourism] plays a critical role in the US economy.” Therefore, to enhance the national economy, it is the NWS’ mission to ensure that the tourists understand the unique perils of weather and water safety.

While the need to translate NWS products into multiple languages is high, there are unique challenges associated with translating to Simplified Chinese, which is the written form of Mandarin Chinese. For instance, the culturally diverse Chinese diaspora extends far beyond mainland China and encompasses multiple dialects. In addition to having LEP, Chinese speakers may be illiterate in their own native languages, and therefore cannot understand written translated material, especially in the older Chinese generation. This is why translated materials need to go beyond plain text, and adopt social science best practices by using infographics and graphics within social media posts. For example, NWS Burlington, VT, has developed a prototype webpage (weather.gov/btv/translationproject) to host weather safety infographics translated for 7 of the 14 critical languages identified by the VT Office of Racial Equity, including Mandarin Chinese. The infographics translated on this webpage helps to build a Weather-Ready Nation by reducing communication barriers that often disproportionately affect socially vulnerable and underserved communities. A challenge specific to the NWS is that there are far fewer Chinese bilingual staff available within the NWS workforce, compared to Spanish bilingual staff, to provide this necessary service.

Given that the NWS has limited linguistic abilities beyond English and Spanish, it becomes pivotal to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to instantaneously translate NWS Watches and Warnings to vulnerable communities in a culturally sensitive and accessible way. The bilingual Chinese team provides quality control to ensure the accuracy of the AI translated materials, while also ensuring social science best practices are met with cultural sensitivity. An experimental webpage that provides translated NWS text products, including those from NWS New York, NY, has recently been developed. This presentation will showcase the contributions of the culturally diverse staff within the NWS, demonstrating their efforts to integrate weather expertise into local communities. It will specifically address the unique needs of Chinese LEP populations in the U.S. and contribute to making the nation more Weather Ready.