BATON ROUGE - Louisiana has the largest population of people who are both deaf and blind in the country.

The Louisiana Association of the Deaf released a letter to medical providers, stating the group advocated for change and pointing out the communication barriers deaf and hard of hearing patients face everyday.

Video remote interpreting, or VRI, is supposed to make communication easier for when an interpreter is not available in person. But according to many in the deafblind population, for extended situations, it's not appropriate.

A VRI is like a Zoom but with an American Sign Language interpreter. The downside, though, is that any technical problems create a language barrier.

"In my own experience as an example, I had a surgery," Dr. Natalie Delgado with the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf said. "I was laying on my back. I was in pain. I couldn't raise my head to be able to see the screen, and I couldn't see the screen to see the interpreter."

For the deafblind population, vision impairment can render the device practically useless.

"As a deaf blind individual, VRI does not provide full access for me," Dr. Megan Wimberly with the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf said. "It's really important for me to have access because we're talking about my health and the heath of my children."

For a solution, they suggest having a list of interpreters from different agencies to partner with, and the group encourages education for the medical community.

"We really want to focus on care and make sure that that interpretation is effective," Jay Isch, executive director of the Louisiana Association for the Deaf, said. "If the VRI is not working effectively, please bring in a person, a live interpreter. That makes the communication much more effective when the VRI is not working."