Solution for live translation

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Our ward has several members who do not speak English, and I was asked to find an accessibility solution for them. Here is what we are using now.

We connect the chapel’s Listen assisted listening devices to the members’ phones using a 3.5 mm TRS microphone to USB-C adapter. The phone then runs Google Translate in live mode to provide real-time translation of the meeting.

So far the experience has been positive overall, even though the service occasionally struggles with some of the audio. I have confirmed that this setup works on Android devices. I have not yet tested it on iPhone. I would also expect this method to work for live transcription for deaf or hard-of-hearing members.

Before this, we tried using only Google Translate with the phone’s built-in microphone. In that case the audio was too washed out and distorted for the service to work well.