The American Community survey publishes household, rather than individual, data for linguistic isolation. They define isolation as “A household in which all members age 14 years and over speak a non-English language and also speak English less than “very well” (have difficulty with English) is ‘linguistically isolated.’”

The ability to communicate and comprehend the English language is a critical skill set for residents in King County where most business and civic discourse is undertaken using the English language.

During a severe storm in the winter of 2006 this issue received increased attention after the Seattle Times took the unprecedented step of publishing the front page in 5 non-English languages (Vietnamese, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Somali) in response to the death of 6 residents and sickness of several others who missed local warnings regarding the use of power generators that produced carbon-monoxide poisoning when not adequately ventilated.

At the time it was determined that traditional communications means including the radio, television and newspapers were unresponsive to the many thousands of King County residents who are classified as linguistically isolated.