#language-access

#language-access

The Trump administration is scaling back plans for this year's field test of the 2030 census, raising concerns about the Census Bureau's ability to produce a reliable population tally for redistributing political representation and federal funding in the next decade. The 2026 test was designed to help the bureau improve the accuracy of the country's upcoming once-a-decade head count.

Irina opens with an ATM example to illustrate how routine tasks can become inaccessible when design and language don't align with the user's needs. When you use a familiar ATM in your native language, there's no one waiting behind you or distractions. But remove just one element, like language familiarity or a clear interface, and the experience quickly shifts from simple to stressful.

In the New York state court system, the people translating for non-English speaking litigants are called interpreters for a reason. They are doing more than just repeating, said Ann Ryan, a career interpreter who now heads the court system's Office of Language Access as its statewide coordinator. They're taking those concepts and converting them into the same concept in another language. And that is a thoughtful but very rapid process.

Technological advances in translation services will permit agencies to produce cost-effective methods for bridging language barriers and reducing inefficiencies with the translation process.

Currently, California provides bilingual voting assistance primarily for Spanish speakers, but a new poll indicates widespread support for expanding this to more languages, including Chinese and Vietnamese.