HablaSeguro: Creating a Latin-American Spanish Communication App to “Talk Safety” on the Jobsite Research Organization: Clemson University
Dr. Jason Lucas
jlucas2@clemson.edu
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director
540-808-7603
Communication is key for many aspects of a successful construction project and to ensure the safety of construction workers. However, communication barriers and challenges exist between non-English speaking Hispanic construction workers and English-speaking project management and field supervision staff. Current practices of using Google Translate and Siri are ineffective as they use European-based dialects of Spanish, which can confuse workers. These communication barriers are one of the major reasons why injury rates were identified as 2.89 times higher for Hispanic workers compared to non-Hispanic workers, as well as the construction industry having the greatest number of Latino worker deaths, which have increased 74% between 2012 and 2017.
This research aims to provide an option for English-speaking project personnel to communicate safety requirements to non-English speaking workers from Mexico and Latin America. By developing a mobile phone application with recorded phrases organized in a logical, easy-to-understand format, job-site personnel would be able to stop and address unsafe work practices by non-English speaking workers. The application would allow for bridging the communication gap in a way that allows the workers to understand better what they are doing in an unsafe manner and how to perform the tasks appropriately.
The results of this research would be a usable tool that improves communication between English-speaking supervisors and Spanish-speaking Mexican and Latin American workers, creating a safer working environment. By overcoming communication issues, workers can improve their safety performance and minimize accidents and injuries on the job site.