Senate Democrats say ‘Si, Se Puede’ to Spanish translation of caucus Web site

OLYMPIA – In the spirit of the Spanish motto ¡Sí, Se Puede! (“Yes, we can”), Senate Democrats today unveiled the caucus’ new Spanish language Web site. Democrats say that translating the Web site helps bridge language and cultural barriers. It also better reflects Washington’s rapidly changing demographics, as Latinos are the state’s fastest-growing minority group.

The Spanish language translation of the Senate Democratic Caucus Web site includes links to general legislative information, leadership structure, committees, member home pages and radio feeds. Every few weeks, the caucus posts a feature story highlighting legislative issues, which now also will be written in Spanish.

The Senate Democratic Caucus follows in the footsteps of its House Democratic counterpart, which translated its Web site a few years ago. Washington’s Legislature is one of two that readily gives Spanish speakers access to legislative information from its home page. New Jersey is the other.

While the Senate Democratic Caucus Web site is not entirely translated to Spanish, it still leads Latino constituents to important legislative information. Providing access to such information in other languages helps new citizens integrate into the mainstream more successfully.

The new Web site looks similar to the English language version, with alternating colors of blue and yellow. This allows a computer user to easily identify which version of the site they are navigating through. Visitors can switch back and forth from the English and Spanish Web pages with a click of the mouse.

To see the new Spanish language Senate Democratic Caucus Web site, visit http://www.sdc.wa.gov/spanish/inicio.htm. The English version can be found at http://www.sdc.wa.gov/.