John, 

New York State is one of the most linguistically diverse states in the country — yet our immigrant communities constantly face significant barriers in maintaining the health and security of their families due to the lack of interpretation and translated materials offered by government agencies. Think about the many challenges posed to families who do not receive multilingual information about critical issues, such as school closures, road safety due to snow storms, the safety of basement dwellings during hurricanes, and even public health updates, like the ones given out during COVID-19. It is long past time we enact more expansive language access legislation to make sure the government works for all New Yorkers!

What is the Language Access Act?
The Language Access Act mandates government agencies to provide Limited English Proficient (LEP) communities with equal access to the same services and information as English speaking individuals. This means that agencies will be required to translate important information into multiple languages, allowing more New Yorkers to access the information they need to maintain the health and security of their families. It also supports the ability of immigrant communities to interact more fully with government services and agencies.

Why Now?
Governor Hochul enacted New York State’s current language access policy as part of last year’s budget, providing translation in the 12 most commonly spoken non-English languages among Limited English Proficient New Yorkers. This law, however, only includes agencies under the Governor’s jurisdiction, excluding agencies like the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Education, making it harder for immigrant families to access information crucial to driver safety or their children’s success, for example. Not requiring all State agencies to provide translations can and has led to unreasonable hardships for immigrants.

While we’ve made significant progress on language access needs in the last year, it’s clearly not enough. The Legislature and Governor have proven this law can be passed—it is time they expand it to all State agencies in New York this legislative session! Everyone has a right to access crucial information from all government agencies in their native language.

We have six weeks left in the state legislative session to deliver language justice for our communities.

Murad Awawdeh
Executive Director