Webinar recap: language access webinar part 2 - improving language access at your organization

This Clear Language Lab webinar took place on March 27, 2025 as part of the Plain Language Foundations series. Check out the notes below or access the webinar recording and slides.

For an overview of language access and other key terms, read about Part 1: Communicating with English Language Learners.

About this webinar

This webinar featured a panel of language access experts:

Crystal Rosa (she + her), Language Access Manager for the City of Cambridge, MA
Olivia Piteša (she + her), Language Access Administrator at Denver Public Library
Meredith Gamble (she + her), Deputy Director & Language Justice Coordinator, Somerville Office of Immigrant Affairs (SOIA)

During this webinar, panelists highlighted the need for comprehensive language access plans, staff training, and community engagement. They discussed challenges such as budget constraints, staff training, and the importance of using professional translators and interpreters. The panel also stressed the significance of privacy and confidentiality in language services and the potential cost savings of effective language access.

Key points

Creating or revising a language access plan

Whether you’re starting from scratch or revising and existing plan, here are some recommended first steps:

Learn about what’s already happening. Are individual departments providing translation and interpretation? What needs are front line folks seeing from community members?
Build community partnerships. What language communities do you serve? How can you build partnerships with other organizations and leaders serving those communities?
Promote services thoughtfully. How will community members know about their language access options? How will you train staff to provide these services?
Research vendors and tools. What fits into the existing needs and workflows you’ve identified? How will you protect the privacy of community members? If your content is highly specialized, how will you content with interpreters and translators who have the required background knowledge to do their work accurately?
Give yourself plenty of time. Building a language access plan doesn’t happen overnight and will change overtime along with your communities’ needs. For both translation and interpretation, it’s best to plan for these services from the beginning to make sure the right people are involved in the process.

Building organizational buy-in:

If language access isn’t a priority for your organization yet, here are some ways to highlight the need:

Collect research on the costs of not providing language services. For example, it’s well documented that without access to medical interpretation, English learners are less likely to seek care and more likely to experience negative outcomes.
Gather data about current spending on language access to create a budget. Be prepared for the costs to raise significantly once more community members are accessing these services.
Find ways to document and highlight the cost of not providing these services. For example, how much staff time is used clarifying misunderstandings or trying to connect with community members who haven’t responded to calls or emails they couldn’t understand?
Establish a working group or connect with language justices champions across your organization to help scale efforts.
Create an internal survey to assess language access needs within your organization.

Overcoming common barriers and challenges to language access

Staff training: it’s critical that staff feel confident offering services, especially live translation. Role-playing exercises are a great way for staff to practice navigation those interactions, and will help you identify additional training needs.
Limited funding: Explore cost-effective models for providing translation and interpretation services, such as utilizing bilingual staff or leveraging technology with human review.
Over-burdening multilingual staff: Unless staff are hired for translation and interpretation, it is unethical for them to fulfil these roles. Multilingual staff can best serve community members as in-language service providers, meaning they’re communicating directly in a language other than English. Provide pay incentives, especially if this is not part of their job description.
Overlooking Accessibility: If we don’t prioritize Accessibility from the beginning, we can end up translating documents that aren’t usable to our audience. Check Accessibility features like reading order, alternative text, and color contrast.
Using technical language: Jargon, technical language, and acronyms can be especially challenging for translation and interpretation. Using plain language as much as possible is best, but sometimes technical language is unavoidable. Create an internal glossary with plain language definitions that all staff use, regardless of language. Then, work with your translation and interpretation team to agree on culturally appropriate alternatives for each language.
Relying on AI tools: Using AI for translation can be dangerous and brings up privacy concerns. While some translation tools can be helpful in a pinch and with general content, AI tools can be more helpful in refining English language content before translating.

Resources

Tools from our panelists:

General resources:

Interested in learning more about professional development at Clear Language Lab? Check out other past webinars, find upcoming events on our training page, or contact Sarah Glazer, Sr. Program Manager, at sarah@litworks.org to learn more about our offerings.