Is Southwest Georgia’s language gap growing?

The Spanish-English language gap continues to increase in Albany, community officials say.JOSHUA BROWN joshua.brown@.at.albanyherald.com
ALBANY — It was about 2 a.m. when Dougherty County paramedic Steve Ebel responded to a recent call about a bleeding man. But because the victim was Mexican and didn’t speak any English, Ebel’s unit didn’t know how the man had been injured or to what extent.
Situations in which communications barriers prevent an emergency from being optimally addressed, while not exactly common, continue to increase as Spanish-speaking immigrants make their way to rural Southwest Georgia, Ebel said.

As a paramedic on the street, he sees firsthand the communications problems faced by Hispanics.

“There’s a big language barrier. ... There’s definitely a need,â€