Toronto Emergency Medical Services is proud to announce that our website has now been translated into 11 other written languages. From the home page, there is now a banner at the top listing the following languages besides English:
- Spanish
- French
- Italian
- Hungarian
- Portuguese
- Vietnamese
- Russian
- Farsi (Persian)
- Tamil
- Simplified Chinese
- Traditional Chinese
While we were not able to include every language spoken by the residents of Toronto, we used statistics compiled in our Communications Centre to choose the top languages requested for interpretation when clients call us using 911. We chose the top languages on this list as well as French, both because of its status as an official language of Canada and because it is the second or third language of many new Canadians.
The information provided in these translations is a small subset of our entire website, but we wished to explain who Toronto EMS is for those who may be unfamiliar with our services, and we especially wanted to give non-English speakers clear instructions for calling 911 in an emergency. It is absolutely not necessary to speak English in order to obtain the services that Toronto EMS provides. It is enough to dial 911 and state the name of the language you do speak. Our interpretation service will take care of the rest. Calling us without hesitation in an emergency situation rather than taking the time to first locate an English-speaker may save the seconds that can mean the difference between life and death.
Toronto EMS Web designer Damon Schreiber says, “It’s long been our goal to provide the most accessible possible Web presence, and I believe these new translations are an important step in broadening our communication with the residents of Toronto and letting them know that we’re there for everyone.”
