Languages We Speak

There is an urgent need among schools for more interpreters who are able to be physically present and provide quality services. English Learners are in need of these services in order to receive a quality education, as well as non-English speaking parents who desire to know what and how their children are doing in class. It can be troubling when lo...

Lawyers act on behalf of their clients at some of the most challenging times of their lives. Legal advocacy is often a very serious matter, when an individual's freedom may be at stake. In this high-stress environment, effective communication between client and advocate is always difficult, but it becomes even harder when there is a language barrie...

Who is at fault when parents misunderstand medical instructions due to a language barrier, and their child dies as a result? Public pressure to answer that question caused laws to evolve several times recently because of such a situation. America has been a melting pot of languages since its inception, and that is no different today. There are over...

Improving active involvement in local government for all citizens is important to many cities, but sometimes it’s not easy to know where to start. A language access plan (LAP) can provide you with a roadmap that the entire city government can use to help determine where each department is at in the process of increasing language accessibility. From...

With another election coming up, many voters are already thinking about casting their ballots fairly soon. US citizens who speak languages other than English will often have access to election materials in their primary language thanks to federal provision requiring that state and local elections officials provide translated ballots and other docum...