Language Access: Translation and Interpretation Policies and Practices: Research
U.S. states and localities are increasingly enacting policies to make sure that language barriers do not prevent people from accessing government information and services, boosting service effectiveness and the ability to connect with residents. This report examines this trend, and the role of state and local policies against the backdrop of a changing federal policy landscape.
Language barriers create challenges not only for individuals with limited proficiency in English but also for state and local governments that need to be able to effectively communicate with all members of the communities they serve. This report offers one of the first in-depth examinations of how U.S. states, counties, and cities have designed and implemented language access measures to address these challenges.
Ensuring people with limited proficiency in English can access government services for which they qualify and receive important public information is critical to the effectiveness and accessibility of state programs. This report analyzes the state of language access measures in Colorado state agencies and identifies opportunities to strengthen these efforts.
Ensuring that individuals with limited English proficiency have access to information and services in federally funded programs has long been a requirement. But providing effective language access, such as through translation and interpreting, remains an unmet goal and demands new strategies. This policy brief offers some next-generation solutions to achieve a mandate that is more than a half century old.
The Task Force on New Americans launched by the Biden administration represents an important occasion to deepen understanding of immigrant integration issues and to identify ways to address them. MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, which has long argued for the need to create such an office within the White House, has developed recommendations for the task force in key areas, drawing from its extensive record of research, policy analysis, and technical assistance.
How many Dual Language Learner (DLL) children live in your state, and what share do they comprise of all children under age 5? What languages are most commonly spoken in their households? Answers to these and other questions that are critical to the design and implementation of early childhood programs that reach all children equitably are presented in a series of state-level data fact sheets.
Dual Language Learners (DLLs)—young children with a parent who speaks a language other than English at home—benefit greatly from early childhood programs, but they also enroll at lower rates than their peers. This policy brief looks at federal and state language access policies that aim to make such programs more accessible to DLLs’ families. It also examines persistent gaps in participation and ways to address them.
Many states and localities have language access laws and policies to ensure people who are Limited English Proficient (LEP) have effective access to essential public services and institutions. This report explores a wide range of common and unique features of these language access laws, highlighting how different jurisdictions have approached issues such as translation, interpretation, agency oversight, technical assistance, and community involvement.
The number of U.S. residents deemed Limited English Proficient (LEP) has increased substantially in recent decades, consistent with the growth of the U.S. foreign-born population. This brief offers analysis on the number, share, growth, and linguistic diversity of LEP individuals in the United States from 1990 to 2010 at the national, state, and metropolitan-area levels.
This report provides an overview of several commonly used translation and interpretation technologies. It aims to assist language access practitioners in understanding and identifying which systems would best meet their agency’s language access needs.
The enactment of President Clinton’s Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Executive Order, issued in 2000, triggered a proliferation of efforts to provide services to individuals who cannot speak, understand, read, or write English fluently. With increased service provision, state and local government agencies have expressed a strong and growing interest in assuring the quality and cost-effectiveness of language access services. This paper attempts to catalog and describe some of those tools and practices.
