Parkersburg City Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl, second from left, discusses the presence of American Sign Language interpreter Ashley Kasara Adams, front, at the Jan. 28 council meeting as Adams interprets her words. Funding to have an interpreter at other council meetings this fiscal year is part of a resolution on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — When Michelle Adkins went to a Parkersburg City Council meeting for the first time in November, she found it extremely hard to follow.

“I couldn’t understand anything, and I felt like I was missing out on learning about what’s going on in my city and what was important to know (about) how they ran the city,” said Adkins, who is deaf.

At the Jan. 28 meeting, an American Sign Language interpreter was present and it made “a huge difference.”

“I was shocked at how people came to get help from the City Council members and talk about things going on in the city that I never knew about,” Adkins said.

Allocating $900 to pay for the services of an interpreter for the remaining meetings in this fiscal year is part of a mid-year budget resolution before council on Tuesday.

Adkins, 20, said she moved to Parkersburg from St. Albans over a year ago to be a part of the local deaf and hard of hearing community. Her boyfriend’s family encouraged her to check out a council meeting.

After that first meeting, at the suggestion of her boyfriend’s mother, Cari Talarico, Adkins contacted Councilwoman Sharon Kuhl, who represents her district. Kuhl said she discussed the situation with Mayor Tom Joyce and the first approach was to utilize the city’s Teams app to display closed captioning of what was said in the meeting on a large screen.

“Although I appreciated that so much, I still felt like I could not understand because closed captions aren’t always accurate and still felt like I needed an interpreter,” Adkins said.

Talarico said closed captioning in English differs from American Sign Language.

“American Sign Language is a context language,” she said. Words like run have “individual, different signs based on the context.”

Adkins spoke to council about the situation during the Jan. 14 public forum.

At the Jan. 28 meeting, ASL interpreter Ashley Kasara Adams stood in front of the council dais, facing the audience, and interpreted the meeting for Adkins and others. Because funding had not been allocated for the service, she was paid with donations collected by Talarico, Kuhl said.

“I felt like I actually fit into a crowd, and (it) felt very welcoming,” Adkins said. “It’s rare to have interpreters at things like these. … It brought a lot of awareness to me and understanding.”

Talarico, who has another son studying to be an ASL interpreter, said there is a larger deaf and hard of hearing community in Parkersburg than people realize.

“It’s important that we include all the residents of Parkersburg and at least give them the opportunity to come,” she said.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com