FRANKFORT, Ky. — The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted life, but there’s some glimmer of hope. Kentucky’s sign language interpreter Virginia Moore said daily and weekly press conferences have shed more awareness on signing interpreters.

“When I interpret for the governor, he brings it in English, I put it out on ASL,” Moore said. She is an Executive Director with the Kentucky Commission On The Deaf and Hard of Hearing. “This is the first time that this governor has or any governor has opened the door to having an interpreter there with him.”

Kentucky is one of the few states that requires sign languages interpreters to carry a license. Around 700,000 Kentuckians are deaf or hard of hearing.

“So we have fought and fought to have an interpreter there for access, but it's never been something that they were willing to do and I can't answer why. So when I called the governor and said we have a pandemic and we have 700,000 [deaf or hard of hearing people] he said, 'come on down.' So I was able to provide him from interpreting services because this governor understood the importance of full communication,” Moore said.

“Kentucky was one of the first. Other states would call us and say how are you doing it? How are you getting the interpreter on stage? And we would explain and explain," she said.

Early versions of Beshear's press conferences showed a smaller screen of interpreters which caused a challenge for the deaf community to see the tiny screen.

“Once those things started to gel together,” Moore said. “The community has been calling our office. 'We want to learn sign language we're interested in sign language. My son, my daughter, watches you and wants to learn sign language.' The governor had to sign for the day for a while, and that encouraged people to understand, 'wow, this is cool.'”

Moore said between 95-96% of deaf children are born to hearing parents.

“So, as the hearing parents see me on the screen, or my team. They're looking at the fact that interpreting can be very important to provide to their child communication access. Not all parents choose that mode of communication,” Moore said.

She added further, there’s still progress to be made because demand is increasing for skilled interpreters.

Moore says when she was younger she wanted to pursue criminology. But having two deaf parents and a many other family members, she saw herself as a bridge between two communities.