Sixty police officers from across the Rio Grande Valley spent four hours on Friday learning sign language in Pharr as part of an effort to better communicate with community members.

The training was hosted by the Disability Chamber of Commerce Rio Grande Valley.

“A person with a disability is getting the training from the officer and the officer is getting a real world experience of various peoples who are either deaf, hard of hearing or and or have autism and how they react in those scenarios," Disability Chamber of Commerce Rio Grande Valley Executive Director Evelyn Cano said. 

The training continues on Saturday with officers taking part in mock scenarios involving real people with disabilities.