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Since ChatGPT dropped in 2022, large language models (LLMs) have been all the rage. ChatGPT and similar tools like Claude and Gemini have been heralded as high-powered productivity tools that can streamline your workflow and make many of our day-to-day work tasks significantly easier. And while it may be true that they can make our jobs a little bit easier, that doesn’t mean they can make our jobs easy. In the field of translation, LLMs have been widely applied alongside machine translation (MT) tools to produce fluent and accurate translations from one language into the next. But organizations looking to translate their content should be careful when employing tools like ChatGPT to translate texts — though they may yield accurate literal translations, these translations may not be fully adequate for your needs as a business. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at five key areas in which AI tools like ChatGPT are still lacking when it comes to translations. From their struggle to understand context to their tendency to editorialize, these are some of the most common issues you’ll want to look out for if you plan on using any of these LLMs to translate your content. Although LLMs can produce pretty accurate literal translations, they’re still not great for situations where you need to translate culturally nuanced language like idioms and other common expressions. According to a 2024 study, AI still struggles to make sense of (and thus, translate accurately) culturally nuanced phrases and ambiguities that human linguists are better prepared to parse out. So while these tools may excel with simple texts like routine forms and paperwork, you’ll still need a human in the loop when translating more complex texts like marketing brochures and web pages. If you’ve ever tried to correct ChatGPT after it produces inaccurate output, you know just how hard it is to get LLMs to correct themselves. But making corrections and editing our work is a key part of a translator’s work — language service professionals catch errors in the moment and adjust accordingly all the time. In a 2023 study, researchers found that LLMs have trouble “self-correcting” — that is, refining future output based, either on their “inherent capabilities” or on feedback to previous responses. According to the study, LLMs struggle to “self-correct their responses without external feedback, and at times, their performance even degrades after self-correction.” That means that these tools may produce errors and then repeat those errors throughout a given text. If you’re using these tools for translation, you’ll need to make sure somebody knowledgeable about both the target and source language is carefully reviewing the output and editing it to minimize these errors. LLMs have raised a wide range of data privacy concerns, and organizations working in highly regulated industries like healthcare and law should be leery of using them for translation tasks. Different industries and locations have different standards of data privacy, so it’s important to be aware of what is and isn’t acceptable for your circumstances. For example, LLMs are generally not HIPAA-compliant — healthcare organizations using this tool to translate texts into another language must make sure to mask any patient health information (PHI) such as name, date of birth, social security number, etc. before putting it into the tool. That means healthcare organizations must be careful to either manually or through automations (AvantShield) scan the original text for any such information and remove it entirely from the text, to avoid issues with HIPAA compliance. In addition to data privacy, another common concern that experts have raised about AI is its implicit biases. All sorts of AI models have drawn criticism for their biases — take, for example, Amazon’s recruiting tool that showed a bias against women applicants in the search and hire process. Such biases may also come up in LLMs performing translation tasks. LLMs are particularly notorious for tone-shifting and editorializing in their translations. They may shift the overall tone of a text to more closely align with its own standards of tone — for example, rephrasing a common yet pejorative buzzword like “woke” as something more neutral, like “aware of social inequality.” The translation of this phrase would in turn lose the connotation understood by the original terminology, harming the overall quality of the translation. Although LLMs can produce highly accurate and fluent text in languages like English, Spanish and French, the same isn’t true for all languages. These tools are trained on massive amounts of text in various languages, primarily taken from the internet — there’s more available input for languages like English and Spanish than there is for Pashto, for example. Languages with more training data will be easier to translate between; on the other hand, LLMs will struggle to produce accurate translations in languages that don’t have a large digital presence — like indigenous languages of the Americas, for example. LLMs may be useful tools, but they’re still far from adequate replacements for human linguists. Instead, human linguists should take a smart, balanced approach to incorporating AI tools into their workflow. By correctly identifying the proper use scenarios of AI in the translation process, we can leverage AI tools in an effective way that speeds things up without sacrificing the overall quality. Here’s why:
 
LLMs struggle to understand cultural or historical context that may be relevant to certain texts, making transcreation and localization tasks nearly impossible with AI alone.
These tools aren’t great at correcting themselves, even when they receive external feedback.
Organizations working in highly regulated industries like healthcare need to be careful not to violate data privacy laws.
AI is known for holding implicit biases which may affect the quality and content of the final translation.
The overall quality of translation will vary by language — languages that do not have a significant digital presence have less training data to draw from and produce an accurate translation.
 
At Avantpage, we’re well aware of the limits of AI tools in the translation process. We have a technologically driven translation workflow, with human linguists involved for quality control. If you need translation or localization services, contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040.
 

Translation and interpretation are a key part of making sure that government services and programs are accessible to everyone who lives in the United States, regardless of their linguistic background. But government agencies often work on a tight budget, and translating document after document and contracting interpreting services can be costly and time-consuming. Fortunately, translation companies understand the constraints that government agencies have to work under. In order to help government agencies reduce costs and save time, we leverage a wide range of technologies, such as machine translation, translation memory, and automated workflows, just to name a few. These tools streamline the translation process making every step quicker, from the initial phase of commissioning language services to the actual translating of documents from one language to another. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at four different kinds of translation technologies that are widely used to help government agencies reduce costs and improve efficiency of language services. If you’ve ever used apps like Google Translate or Microsoft Translator, you’re familiar with the basics of machine translation (MT). In the language services industry, businesses use more advanced MT tools that allow for a degree of customization. When you use a free tool like Google Translate, the process is fairly simple: You input text in one language, and the app generates a translation of that text in a matter of seconds. But this can yield inconsistent and, perhaps more importantly, inaccurate translations. When professional translators utilize MT tools, the process is much more complex — we factor in glossary creation and translation memory to make sure that the translation generated matches the client’s standards. The glossary creation process entails the creation of a database of key terms and phrases that are typically specific to a client’s industry or company. Oftentimes, literal translation of these words from one language to another will lead to inaccurate results; by creating a glossary to incorporate into the MT process, you ensure that these terms will be translated appropriately and consistently. Likewise, translation memory (TM) technology stores past translations so that the MT tool can re-use them when needed. This can be helpful for specific phrases, sentences or paragraphs that come up frequently in your documents — think forms, boilerplates, etc. Over time, TM can reduce the actual word count of your translation projects, in turn lowering the cost as well. Some of our clients who leverage this technology translate an average of around 60 words for every 100, thanks to previous translations that TM reuses. These technologies come together to reduce the turnaround time and cost of your translation. Glossary creation and TM make your translations more consistent, while MT makes the translation process much faster. Language service providers work with human linguists during each step of the MT process, ensuring that translations produced by MT tools are accurate. These linguists carefully review MT output so you can be assured that your translations are of high quality. Acting as centralized hubs for communication between clients and language service providers, client portals simplify workflows and offer tools that can save time and overhead costs. When it comes to language services, there are three main types of client portals: general, one-stop-shop portals, interpreting platforms and translation management system (TMS) platforms. The former are comprehensive platforms where clients can manage translation projects, submit files, track progress, and even handle payments in one place. These platforms can include cloud storage for file management, template requests for recurring projects, and data insights, which allow users to monitor project trends and performance. On the other hand, interpreting platforms focus on interpreting services — using a company’s interpreting platform gives you access to real-time language services like on-demand video remote interpreting and over-the-phone interpreting. Many interpreting platforms also highlight domain-specific expertise, regulatory compliance, and transparency regarding minimum fees or subscription requirements. Agencies that have their own internal language teams may want to work with a translation company that also has a TMS platform. Your linguists may use this portal to monitor progress on projects, perform the translations, and communicate preferred terminology. By leveraging these platforms, government agencies can enhance their efficiency and responsiveness, delivering high-quality language services while staying within budget. The general portals ease communication between you and the translation agency — after all, it’s easy to lose track of important information when all your communication is over email and phone calls. It also gives you the data needed to analyze how you’re using language services and how to be more efficient. Likewise, interpreting platforms allow you to tap into a network of interpreters that are ready to provide their services at a moment’s notice. To translate documents efficiently, translators need to receive documents in editable formats such as .txt and .doc files. When clients provide non-editable texts such as .pdfs or paper documents, the LSP must convert them into editable formats – in the past, this was a rather tedious and time-consuming task requiring manual keying. Fortunately, optical character recognition (OCR) technology has made this process a breeze, allowing for automated file processing. By eliminating the need for manual data entry, OCR technology saves you time and money. Companies use OCR technology to scan files such as .pdfs and physical documents and convert them into text that can be easily edited in a .txt or .doc file. Beyond simple conversion, automated file processing can be seamlessly integrated into translation workflows. For example, once a document has been scanned using OCR, it can be automatically categorized, tagged, and prepared for translation. Likewise, text that has been processed by OCR can be copied and pasted into MT tools to kickstart the translation process. Custom automated workflows provide the flexibility needed to handle unique client requirements. These workflows streamline repetitive tasks and allow organizations to tailor the translation process to their specific needs. Automating your workflow requires us to identify manual steps that can be optimized, such as file preparation or document formatting. A custom workflow might automate tasks like converting documents into required formats, or applying pre-approved glossaries and translation memories to speed up the translation process. By leveraging custom automated workflows, translation companies improve the consistency of translation projects commissioned by a given client. Not all language service providers are equipped to offer customized workflows — if you’re interested in these workflows, check with prospective providers to make sure it’s an option. Language service providers with internal IT teams are often better equipped to offer these tailored solutions. Such teams can design, implement, and maintain custom workflows that align perfectly with a client’s operational goals. Whether you need to translate routine paperwork into Spanish or want to expand the number of languages you can provide over-the-phone interpreting for, translation companies have a wide range of technologies that can make these services affordable without sacrificing on the quality of service. At Avantpage, we’re proud to leverage our proprietary technologies like AvantPortal, AvantMemory, and AvantShield to streamline the translation process for our government clients. If you’re in need of a technology-driven language service provider for your next project, look no further — contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administer critical programs for residents of the United States in need of free or low-cost health plans. These programs are particularly critical for individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) — in 2021, nearly 20% of the nation’s population with LEP were enrolled in Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Programs had LEP. Likewise, 23% of children enrolled in Medicaid had parents who spoke English “less than very well,” back in 2019. As important as these programs are for millions of LEP patients across the nation, their effectiveness ultimately hinges on their ability to connect with and enroll eligible residents. That’s why it’s particularly important that CMS marketing strategies utilize multilingual content — after all, it’s hard to make your message resonate with an audience if they can’t understand the very words you’re using. LEP patients often report difficulty understanding their eligibility for CMS programs. Similarly, many LEP individuals are completely unaware that these programs exist in the first place, due to the prominence of English-language marketing that is simply inaccessible. Multilingual CMS marketing strategies can help with all of this. From creative content like informational videos and brochures to more run-of-the-mill content like SMS messages and letters addressed directly to patients, it’s absolutely critical that Medicare and Medicaid providers connect with people in the language that they speak. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the different approaches you can take when developing a multilingual CMS marketing strategy. While these approaches differ slightly, the end result is the same: CMS marketing campaigns that resonate with people no matter what language they speak. Depending on the resources and budget available to you, you can either craft the marketing content directly in your target languages or you can create content in English first, working with a trusted language service provider to translate the content into your target languages. It may be daunting to craft marketing content in a language you don’t speak — but using this approach allows you to develop marketing campaigns that are authentic and tailored specifically to your target communities. Creating content directly in the target languages requires you to work with a wide range of professionals: in-language copywriters, SEO specialists, marketers and designers, to name a few. By leveraging AI tools, you can easily generate content briefs in the target language and send them off to content specialists who will develop whatever you need — blogs, social media posts, scripts, etc. — in the languages you need them in. By eliminating the need for a translation step, you can ensure that your CMS marketing materials are culturally and linguistically appropriate, without having to wonder if something got lost in translation. That said, there are a handful of trade-offs to this method. To start, contracting marketing professionals in several different languages can get costly. Depending on the number of target languages you’re working in, you also risk fragmentation across different languages — for example, your Spanish content may end up being visually and tonally quite different from your Chinese content. When you work with a language service provider to translate English source material, the provider handles all of the hiring work on their own — if you choose to create content directly in the target language, all of the work of searching for, vetting, and hiring marketing professionals will be placed on your organization. Consider how much time and money your organization has to put toward these materials before opting to go with this approach. You’re likely to find that it’s cheaper and less labor-intensive to create English materials and translate them. If you don’t have access to content marketing professionals who work in your target languages, you can instead develop English-language marketing materials in house before commissioning translation or localization from a language service provider. If you go this route, there are two different approaches you can take: Either you can create content using your brand’s standard tone and voice, or you can use plain language, which will help streamline the translation process and make your content more easily understandable. Below, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of these two options. This is likely to be the easiest approach for healthcare providers. Your marketing team can simply craft their content as normal, adhering to your standard branding, style, and terminology. Once the content’s been drafted, you can send it off to your language service provider and request the translation services needed. Maintaining your brand voice in the target language will likely require your language service provider to transcreate — rather than simply translate — your content. Though they are closely related processes, transcreation goes a bit deeper than translation. Transcreation attempts to mimic the tone and feel of the original documents, so transcreation specialists have to take into account several additional elements beyond the text itself, such as SEO, local culture, copywriting best practices, design, etc. In the end, this will yield a final product that closely aligns with your brand’s style, while also making sure that the content resonates with LEP individuals. However, transcreation is a more complex process than plain translation. Your language service provider will have to spend more time focusing on your brand’s voice and style, which means you should anticipate a longer turnaround time on projects and potentially higher costs to complete. The term “plain language” refers to writing that is concise and easy to understand on the first read. Standards of plain language might differ quite a bit from your brand’s standard voice and tone, but it can be worth it in the long run to sacrifice your branding a bit for plain language content. Plain language tends to be easier to translate and doesn’t usually require . That means language service providers can typically provide you with a quicker turnaround time on marketing materials that have been written in plain language. This means that it’s particularly suitable for healthcare content under strict regulatory deadlines, such as notices of action and member letters that must be translated and delivered within 72 hours. But using plain language isn’t just about lowering costs and reducing turnaround time on your translations. Health literacy rates in this country are low — 36% of adults in the US have basic or below basic health literacy rates. Plain language breaks down complex medical concepts into small chunks that readers can easily understand. By explaining things in clear, concise language, you make medical information more accessible, enabling patients to understand your message and improve their health literacy. Plain Language Guidelines: Translation Begins with the Source Multilingual marketing strategies are the key to connecting with individuals with LEP. When it comes to programs like Medicare and Medicaid, it’s important that healthcare providers make an effort to engage individuals in all languages so that they can understand their eligibility for free or low-cost healthcare services. Here are a few different approaches to developing multilingual CMS marketing content for LEP patients: No matter which approach you select, the end product will be a CMS marketing campaign that effectively reaches patients with LEP. At Avantpage, we’ll gladly assist you in developing a multilingual marketing strategy. Whether you need translation, transcreation, or web localization, we can help — contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to get started.
Browse our most recent blogs covering topics surrounding health equity, language access, and improving social determinants of health through culturally competent care.

For millions of immigrants and refugees living in the United States, navigating essential federal programs poses quite a challenge. Individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) often struggle to access critical services like Medicare — even though these agencies are required by law to offer language access services, individuals with LEP often have trouble accessing them as easily as their English-speaking counterparts. This difficulty arises in part due to the fact that the federal government’s guidelines for supporting individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) are rather outdated — most federal agencies today utilize guidelines based on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) LEP Guidance published in 2002. A lot has changed in the last two decades — so our approach to language access at the federal level should adapt to reflect those changes. In fact, there are a couple of key challenges with the current federal approach to language access. Firstly, federal agencies today usually follow a single set of LEP guidelines for all programs, rather than tailored language access plans for each. While this one-size-fits-all approach might have worked in 2002, it falls short as programs have diversified and gone digital. Additionally, there is little transparency about the effectiveness of these language access plans. Although agencies are required to have them, few processes exist to evaluate their efficacy or enforcement. If you work with a federal agency and are looking for ways to develop a unique and creative language access plan, this blog post will give you some insight into how you can address these challenges, particularly in the research and early phases of development. We’ll start with a look at the stakeholders who will be most impacted by changes to your LEP guidance and then explore the other areas you need to consider, from data collection to IT support. Common Components of a Language Access Plan
While language access measures are put in place to help individuals with LEP, those end users aren’t the only people who will be impacted by changes to your agency’s language access guidelines. It’s also important to consider how this will impact your frontline staff, who are often the first point of contact for LEP individuals. You’ll want to consider the ways your staff typically interact with LEP users — do they talk to them on the phone or is communication mostly through mail or online, text-based channels? Answering questions like this will help you identify weakness in your current processes and customize your plan to a specific program. Ensuring that these staff members are equipped with the necessary training and resources to effectively communicate with LEP individuals is critical for the success of any language access plan. Depending on how they interact with users, you may want to hire additional bilingual staff who can perform these tasks in a language commonly spoken among LEP individuals who seek your services.
Odds are, you’ll need a lot of support from outside sources — vendors like language service providers, as well as DEI consultants, research organizations, community representatives and community-based organizations (CBOs) should play a prominent role in the development and implementation of any language access plan. You can work with language service providers to identify the kinds of language services you need, whether it’s over-the-phone interpreting, document translation, website localization, or something else. Meanwhile, consultants and other organizations can share valuable insights into the specific needs of LEP users. For example, a CBO that works with specific immigrant populations can help you organize focus group sessions with LEP residents who seek access to your programs; DEI consultants can provide you with information about the best practices for making sure your language access plan is equitable and inclusive.
A solid language access plan starts with comprehensive data. Use existing sources like U.S. Census data and the American Community Survey (ACS) to identify LEP demographics and common languages spoken among the immigrants who are most likely to need your services. You should also supplement this with internal data on service usage, user feedback, and past interactions to uncover current language access gaps. Combining this data with the insights provided by vendors and other third parties like CBOs can provide first-hand insights from LEP individuals and staff who interact with them. Collecting both quantitative and qualitative data ensures your language access plan is targeted, effective, and responsive to the actual needs of the community.
The way we connect with one another has changed quite a bit since 2002 — social media and the internet have become critical outreach channels and as such, effective language access requires using them to reach individuals with LEP. Be sure to integrate a mix of digital and traditional methods such as online platforms, printed materials, phone services, and in-person interactions. Websites and apps should be optimized for multilingual access, with clear navigation in users’ preferred languages. Be careful not to put all your eggs in one basket though. Digitization is important, but it’s also important to use print media and other channels, as individuals with LEP (especially elderly folks) may face digital inclusion barriers that English speakers don’t. Don’t overlook community hubs like churches and local nonprofits that LEP individuals trust. Partnering with these groups can help amplify outreach and build awareness of available services. By diversifying communication channels, you enhance the likelihood that LEP users can access critical information and support seamlessly.
In the early phases of planning and developing LEP guidance, you’ll also want to consider the ongoing support you’ll need after the plan’s been implemented. Maybe you’ll need additional support from your IT specialists after localizing your website to make sure that everything functions properly (i.e., you don’t want a link on the Spanish version of your website to direct users to an English webpage or PDF). Additionally, you’ll also want to work with CBOs and community members to receive regular feedback on your language access measures to make sure that you’re able to adapt to the needs of your programs’ LEP users.
Modernizing your language access plans can be a major task — as the DOJ’s federal guidance on language access hasn’t changed much in two decades, there’s a lot to consider after two decades of change in other dimensions. Here are some key questions federal agencies should ask themselves if they plan on developing a language access plan for the modern era: If you’re looking to revamp your agency’s LEP guidance and implement a more modern approach to language access, Avantpage has you covered. We offer translation and interpreting services that are crucial to any language access plan — not to mention, we also offer in-depth language access consulting services to help you lay out a roadmap for your organization. Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to learn more.

Clear, effective communication between healthcare providers and their patients is essential for improving health outcomes, especially within minority communities. However, the path to understanding isn’t always straightforward. While speaking the same language as your patients — that is, providing translations, interpreting, etc. — goes a long way, it’s not the only way to ensure that you’re communicating effectively with your patients. The words we use are just one aspect of communication. Other, non-verbal aspects of communication such as cultural understanding, shared experiences, and body language play equally crucial roles in building trust and ensuring messages resonate. That’s where community health workers, also referred to as “promotores de salud” in Spanish-speaking circles, come in. These dedicated individuals serve as trusted liaisons who bridge the healthcare access gap and cultivate lasting trust within vulnerable populations.  According to MHP Salud, a non-profit organization that focuses on improving access to social services and healthcare in underserved communities, promotores de salud “use their insights and knowledge of cultural norms to provide relevant health information and education to help Hispanics work through the barriers they face when addressing complex issues such as sexual assault, navigating the health care system, and gaining access to affordable fresh and nutritious foods.” In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at what community health workers and promotores de salud do to boost patients’ confidence in and understanding of their care. We’ll also talk about how your organization can work with them to improve your language access measures and go beyond translation and interpretation to provide patients with a truly equitable healthcare experience. As the American Public Health Association defines them, a community health worker “is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served.” For healthcare organizations that work closely with immigrant populations who have limited English proficiency (LEP), community health workers who are knowledgeable about or members of the relevant immigrant communities can be especially powerful liaisons between the care team and their patients. Promotores de salud are one prominent example of such community health workers — promotores de salud aim to bridge the gap between healthcare providers and their Hispanic patients with LEP. Because community health workers are already members of the community they serve, patients may be more trusting toward them, enabling more effective communication from the get-go. Community health workers help individuals with a wide range of healthcare-related tasks and provide them with valuable information about how to navigate the complexities of the American healthcare system. In many cases, community health workers play an educational role — they inform patients about what services are available to them, helping them find informational materials that have already been translated into their language, and providing them with resources to lead a healthy lifestyle. They also provide support, helping patients schedule doctor’s appointments, working together with them to fill out administrative paperwork or apply for low-cost medical insurance programs, acting as a sort of liaison between the patient and their providers. Community health workers are not language service professionals — you wouldn’t necessarily go to them to provide interpretation services for a patient with LEP. But they still play a valuable role in improving health outcomes for patients with LEP, as they speak the patient’s language and help them navigate the healthcare system in their preferred language. Unlike interpreters — whose role is primarily linguistic — community health workers can check in with the patient to make sure that they fully understand the implications of what their caretaker is telling them. Thanks to their knowledge of the patient’s cultural background, they can provide additional information in a way that is not only linguistically appropriate, but also culturally appropriate. In this sense, community health workers allow care teams to cover all of their bases when it comes to communicating with the patient — they can rest easy knowing that their patient fully understands their condition. Additionally, community health workers can enrich your multilingual outreach efforts — after all, you may have plenty of translated materials on hand, but they won’t be useful to patients unless they know how and where to access them. One critical part of community health workers’ job is to help patients find healthcare-related information that’s been translated into their language. Community health workers empower patients from underserved backgrounds to advocate for themselves in a healthcare setting. For patients with LEP, they are particularly invaluable as they ensure that language isn’t the only barrier addressed—they also make sure information is provided in a trustworthy and culturally relevant way. By building a good rapport with patients and providing culturally tailored health information, community health workers enable patients to better understand their health, access essential services, and make informed decisions about their care. If you’re looking to learn more about the role community health workers can play in your organization, Avantpage can help. We provide language access consulting services and can help you develop a language access plan that centers cultural relevance — contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to learn more.

Although this year’s presidential election has come to a close, there are still plenty more elections on the horizon to prepare for: With local elections coming up all across the country and midterm elections in 2026, poll workers are sure to remain busy. As election offices throughout the nation plan for upcoming election cycles, it’s important to hire bilingual poll workers. Bilingual poll workers are a critical part of making sure that things run smoothly at the polls on election day, as they enable voters with limited English proficiency (LEP) to participate in the process seamlessly. Poll workers ensure that voters feel welcome when they arrive at the polls; they’re also there to answer any questions voters may have about the process. But if voters have trouble communicating with the poll workers effectively, it can cause a bit of friction in the process, making voters with LEP feel alienated and uncertain on election day. This is why it’s crucial to hire a multilingual team of poll workers who are able to communicate with voters in a wide range of different languages. “Voting is one of the most important acts to exert citizenship, and many people get nervous (including poll workers), especially if their English is limited and they are new to the American election system,” says Claudia Burdisso, a government business development manager and former bilingual poll worker. Bilingual poll workers aren’t just a nice asset to have on election day — election offices are also required by law to provide voters with aid in certain minority languages. Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act mandates that written and oral communications must be available in certain minority languages so that voters with LEP are able to fulfill their civic duty with ease. In this blog post, we’ll go over the basics of hiring bilingual poll workers to aid LEP voters, showing you how these workers can play a critical role in boosting voter turnout and ensuring things run like clockwork on your jurisdiction’s next election day. Language Access in Elections that Every Official Should Know Learn How Language Access in Elections at Yolo County Makes a Big Impact
It’s not enough to just hire a couple of bilingual poll workers and haphazardly assign them to different locations throughout your jurisdiction. Election offices must be purposeful in the way that they recruit and place multilingual team members, to ensure that their bilingual poll workers are able to adequately serve LEP voters. “Reinforcing best practices for bilingual poll workers is crucial for LEPs to have a good experience and feel integrated in the democracy of our country,” Claudia says. Here are three key considerations to make when employing and working with bilingual poll workers. The first step to effectively employing bilingual poll workers is knowing which languages are most needed in your jurisdiction. A good starting point is to consult census data or your local voter rolls to determine which language groups are particularly prevalent in your community. Prioritize recruiting poll workers who are fluent in these languages, keeping in mind basic dialectal differences. For example, don’t just set out to hire “Chinese-speaking” poll workers — look into the dialects and languages of China that are spoken most widely in your region. You may find that most Chinese Americans with LEP in your jurisdiction speak a minority language like Hmong, rather than more widely known languages like Mandarin or Cantonese. Once you’ve identified your target languages, consider partnering with a community-based organization (CBO) to help with recruitment, or search for candidates at churches, schools, and other institutions that are likely to be frequented by speakers of the languages you’ve identified. You’ll also want to have some sort of language assessment plan to ensure that the individuals you’re planning on hiring have adequate language skills. It’s also important to be strategic about where you assign bilingual poll workers. Different neighborhoods may have higher or lower concentrations of particular language speakers, so place your staff accordingly to maximize their impact. Recruiting is just the first step — once you’ve found poll workers in the right languages, proper training is essential to ensure they can assist voters effectively. Training should go beyond the basics of poll operations by placing an emphasis on language assistance. Start by clearly outlining the tasks they will perform and helping them sharpen their communication skills. Both bilingual and monolingual poll workers should understand the role of language assistance at the polls; workers who aren’t able to provide bilingual language assistance should know which workers they can direct LEP voters to. Additionally, if you’ve hired a bilingual poll worker to provide language-concordant assistance, monolingual workers should not be pulling them away from their job to act as ad hoc interpreters. It’s also important to equip poll workers with effective communication techniques tailored to the needs of LEP voters. You may want to consider providing them with a terminology glossary of key election-related terms in both English and their target language, which can be created in-house or sourced from state election agencies like the Secretary of State (SOS) office or the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Consider offering ongoing training opportunities that allow bilingual poll workers to refine their language and customer service skills over time. This will not only boost their confidence but also improve their ability to handle election-day stress while maintaining clear communication with LEP voters. Clear instruction, strategic preparation, and ongoing support will set them up for success on election day. Evaluations and assessments are another important way to improve your office’s language assistance services — after all, it’s hard to improve something when you don’t know exactly what’s lacking. Not only can bilingual poll workers provide language assistance on the day of the election, but they can also help you evaluate written translations of voting materials. While you should always hire a professional translator or language service provider to translate your voting materials, your bilingual employees can help evaluate the final product and flag any potential errors with the vendor. You may also consider working with CBOs to investigate areas of your language access plan that could use some improvement. They may be able to help you identify weak spots in your placement of bilingual poll workers so that you can be more effective in future cycles. Likewise, they may be able to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your bilingual poll workers and get a sense of the community’s perception of your language assistance services. This community feedback can be particularly helpful, and is something that CBOs are especially well-equipped to provide you with — search for local language advisory groups that specialize in this kind of work.
If you’re looking to hire bilingual poll workers and improve your language assistance services in your jurisdiction’s next election cycle, be sure to make the following considerations: At Avantpage, we’re proud to specialize in language access for elections offices, ensuring that LEP voters are able to participate fully in American democracy. Let us help you develop a language access plan that boosts voter turnout and trust. Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040.

Health insurance providers have to work with extremely tight timelines to ensure that patients receive communications and letters about their plans in a timely fashion.  Since California’s Department of Health Care Services issued APL 21-011 in 2022, California’s Medi-Cal managed health care plans have had to issue notice of action (NOA) letters and notice of appeal resolution (NAR) letters to patients in their preferred language (or preferred alternative format such as braille or large print) within a 72-hour timeframe. When mailing these communications to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP), this means the content must be translated, printed, mailed, and received within just three days. Now, due to changes by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, this requirement is expanding out of California and will be standard across the nation. The 72-hour requirement aims to reduce delays in patient care, which can be detrimental to a patient’s overall health outcome. Still, this is a pretty tight timeframe to work within, and it may seem like the translation process would slow things down. But it doesn’t have to be that way. At Avantpage, we’ve been working with California healthcare organizations since this regulation was first introduced in 2022 to develop a finely tuned process that ensures patients with LEP or disabilities receive translated/alternatively formatted letters well within the 72-hour timeframe. In the first year alone, we managed to translate 17,000 member letters. We can handle everything from translating letters to actually printing and mailing them — all while maintaining compliance with HIPAA and the requirements outlined in new regulations surrounding APLs. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the steps we follow for our translation to print and mail services to show you how we translate member letters and other important healthcare communications in rushed timeframes without sacrificing the quality of your communication. Our clock starts ticking as soon as you send us the content you need translated. Along with the letter you need translated, you’ll also need to give us various project specifications for the project so that we can complete it in a timely fashion — that includes things like turnaround time, target language, etc. Once we receive a document and project specifications, we get right to work. The vast majority of our translations are printed and mailed out within seven to eight hours. Once we’ve got the content and project specifications, we run the document through AvantShield, our proprietary patient health information (PHI) masking software. This preprocessing step is absolutely critical to ensuring that our translations are HIPAA compliant; during this step, we remove all PHI from the document so that this data remains safe and secure. After processing the document through AvantShield, we assign the project to a team of linguists to begin the translation process. In assigning linguists to a project, we take into account several factors—availability, linguist qualifications, location and HIPAA requirements. Once the team has been assigned to your project, we’ll begin with the translation steps. The linguist team will first translate the content into the target language, edit it to ensure accuracy and readability, and review it to make sure that there are no typographical errors. After the review step is done, we’ll make sure to put the PHI back into the document. We save this step for last in order to keep patient data secure and ensure HIPAA compliance. Our in-house quality assurance (QA) team, who runs further QA checks and gives the final stamp of approval on each translation. Our extensive QA procedures allow you to rest easy knowing that we’re delivering the most accurate and high-quality translation possible. By the eighth hour, your letter is translated and ready to go. At this stage, we’ll work closely with one of our highly vetted printers to ensure that your documents are printed and mailed in a timely fashion. We’ll send the document directly to the printer, so you don’t have to worry about handling the logistics of printing and mailing these letters yourself. Once the document is printed, the printer will package and mail the letter to the patient. By Hour 8, your letter should be in the mail carrier and ready for delivery. We allow the most time for this final period, since the delivery process is entirely manual. Because we complete the translation and quality steps so early on in the process, we have a little bit of leeway in case there are any delays in the postal system. Altogether, this process allows your patients to receive their communications in their preferred language in a timely fashion. This reduces the chance of delays in patient care, in turn, improving their health outcomes. At Avantpage, we’ve been working with health insurance providers to make sure their clients receive information about their health plans in their preferred language as quick as possible, without sacrificing on translation quality. We’ve developed a fine-tuned process to ensure that translated letters reach patients’ mailboxes in 72 hours or less—here’s how it works: Looking to learn more about how we can help you deliver letters to patients in 72 hours or less? Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040.

It’s no secret that speaking your patient’s language goes a long way toward reducing the risk for error in healthcare. Language access is an absolutely critical aspect of making sure that patients with limited English proficiency get the care that they need — interpreters allow doctors and patients to understand one another, minimizing the chances of a misdiagnosis due to gaps in understanding, while translated documents allow patients to stay informed about their condition.  Another, less widely discussed benefit of language access services in the healthcare system is that language access builds trust between the patient and their care team. The relationship between language and trust is strong — when you communicate with somebody in their preferred language, they are more likely to feel comfortable and trusting of your services. By fostering a sense of transparency in communications between the patient and their care team, language access allows the patient to feel more confident in their interactions with their doctor. Enhanced patient trust, in turn, empowers patients to ask questions and be better advocates for themselves, ultimately improving their health outcomes. Research has shown that when patients receive language concordant care — that is, healthcare services provided by staff who speak the same language as them — they are significantly more likely to trust their healthcare providers than patients who receive services through ad hoc interpreters. This is particularly important when we consider the fact that members of marginalized communities — such as immigrants and people with LEP — are less likely to trust healthcare providers. While it may not always be possible to provide 100% language concordant care, the strong relationship between language and trust is evident. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how you can enhance your language access services to build patient trust. Here are five simple ways that you can employ language access services to build patient trust in your practice. As we’ve mentioned previously, language concordant care can go a long way toward building patient trust. Emphasizing multilingualism and multiculturalism in your hiring practices allows you to offer such care. Language concordant care doesn’t simply mean asking bilingual staff to act as impromptu interpreters (which, on the whole, is not recommended). Instead, it means hiring caretakers who are deeply proficient in a given language, who are capable of performing the duties of a doctor, nurse, or other care provider in the preferred language of the patient. This goes a long way toward building patient trust. Having access to a trained medical interpreter ensures that patients are able to understand their care team in real time. Medical interpreters are specialized professionals who are deeply familiar with the language used in a medical setting and make communication between care providers and patients with LEP much smoother and more transparent. Make sure to have multiple different modes of interpreting available so that you can suit the patient’s preference and needs — in-person, video, or over-the-phone.  By having commonly used forms — such as consent forms, discharge instructions, and informational brochures — available in multiple languages, you remove communication barriers that can delay care or lead to misunderstandings. This is a proactive approach that makes sure patients are well-informed, ultimately enhancing patient trust in their care team. Regularly updating these documents to reflect the linguistic needs of your patient population also demonstrates a commitment to cultural sensitivity and inclusive care. Multilingual phone trees make it easier for patients to schedule appointments, ask questions, or access services without confusion. Allowing patients to access your phone system in multiple languages not only reduces frustration, but also signals to patients that their needs are a priority from the very first interaction. For pre-recorded content such as automated voicemails, it’s a good idea to leave bilingual messages in both English and Spanish. Additionally, you’ll also want to make sure to keep note of a patient’s preferred language so that you can have pre-written or recorded appointment confirmations sent to them via text or phone call in their language. By providing clear and accessible phone options, you build a sense of trust and inclusion, reinforcing the notion that all patients, regardless of their linguistic background, are valued and supported. To build patient trust, you need to make sure that your patient-facing staff are adequately trained to interact with patients who come from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Organization-wide training sessions on cultural and linguistic appropriateness are a good way to teach your staff how to engage patients from different backgrounds. While you likely won’t be able to assign an Algerian Arabic-speaking patient with LEP to a care team composed entirely of doctors and nurses from the same cultural and linguistic background, it’s important that staff from different backgrounds are able to interact with them respectfully. Hosting regular training on topics related to cultural and linguistic sensitivity ensures that your staff are aware of best practices for building trust with LEP patients. Building patient trust isn’t easy — especially if you’re not able to communicate with patients in a transparent and easily understandable fashion. It can be even harder to build trust with communities that have historically faced marginalization, such as immigrants and people with LEP. So when it comes to caring for LEP patients, language access goes a long way toward improving your patients’ trust in your services. Here are a few simple ways that language access can boost trust between you and your patients: If you’re looking for ways to build trust with your patients, Avantpage has you covered. From interpreting and translation services to evaluating the language skills of your multilingual staff, we offer several language services that are sure to boost patient trust. Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to learn more.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming many industries, including language services, like interpreting, and the healthcare sector. Working at the intersection of these areas, we see our clients struggling to figure out how best to benefit from exciting developments in automation and AI-powered technologies without compromising interpreting and translation quality. At Avantpage, we’re supporting healthcare organizations by implementing AI carefully, safely, and transparently to optimize business processes and translation workflows.   Tools like machine translation can greatly enhance the work of human translators and there are ways that human interpreters can leverage AI to support their job as well. But while Avantpage embraces AI in certain aspects of language access, we encourage our clients to carefully consider the implications of services that offer to entirely replace linguists with AI interpreting technology. These offers of a service that’s faster and cheaper are understandably appealing when you’re on a tight budget. But are there more risks than benefits in a highly regulated industry where patient experience and outcomes are the top priorities?   The National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare¹ recently published their “Guidance for Healthcare Organizations Evaluating the Potential Use of AI-generated Interpreting,” where they highlight many areas for organizations to ask deeper questions.   We consider some of these here, highlighting five core concerns for health plans and hospitals considering an exclusively AI-interpreting model.   A crucial part of language access planning is understanding which languages you need to provide. The core languages spoken in your patient communities should be easy to identify. But how will you offer support to a patient who needs an interpreter in a less common dialect or a language of lesser diffusion? It is important to remember that AI models are only as good as the data used to train them. If that data is limited (eg. for indigenous languages or other less common languages and dialects), you cannot rely on the same level of accuracy as a commonly spoken language such as Spanish. If you are using an AI interpreting model, does your provider have a backup solution for languages that are not available through AI? And on the topic of Spanish, can the AI tool pivot to provide a Spanish speaker from Puerto Rico versus one from Mexico, to match the needs of an individual caller? These are important questions to consider when considering an AI interpreting provider.  As mentioned above, it is important to consider whether an AI interpreting service has been trained using sufficient data to provide accurate output for your members or patients. But the quality assurance questions don’t end there.   Human interpreters are required to meet certain qualifying criteria. These include proof of subject-specific training, nationally recognized credentials, field experience, continuing education, and adherence to the National Code of Ethics. Years of experience (Avantpage requires a minimum of 3 years) have taught interpreters to self-monitor and to constantly look out for subtle misunderstandings between the parties. If a human interpreter identifies a communication issue, such as a cultural misunderstanding or a moment of unintelligible speech, they can intervene before it becomes a larger issue. How does an exclusively AI-generated interpreter guarantee the same level of nuanced expertise and service quality? Has the AI been trained with terminology that is specific to the healthcare industry? Does the service offer an opportunity to switch to a human interpreter if it becomes apparent that a quality issue is developing on the call? Distinct from quality assurance, quality control is about monitoring performance and improving a service to maximize quality and outcomes for patients. When it comes to written translation, tools with AI features learn and improve through detailed feedback from human linguists. If you are considering an exclusively AI interpreting model, find out how the tool will learn from mistakes. Will there be an opportunity for your staff, patients, or human interpreters to give feedback, and will that be incorporated into the model’s improvement? How does a user submit a complaint, how will errors be tracked, and who is ultimately responsible should a serious error occur? Will the service be spot-checked and monitored from the quality perspective, to be sure that patients and providers are receiving the level of quality they deserve? If you use a service like this, are you complying with federal regulations surrounding quality and AI, such as those outlined in Section 1557 of the ACA? Anyone who works in healthcare in the United States understands the importance of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and, in the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). When a health organization contracts with a language services provider such as Avantpage, that LSP must show that they offer translation and interpreting services that align with these regulations. This includes HIPAA training for staff and interpreters, secure and encrypted phone lines and servers, and many other data security measures that are monitored through annual audits. AI interpreting models work by recording conversations, converting them to text, translating them, and then voicing them in the target language. If an AI interpreting service is recording patient data, where is it being stored and for how long? What measures are in place to prevent a breach? Are patients aware that they are being recorded, and is there an option to opt out of this and be routed to a human interpreter on a non-recorded line?   Addressing the factors above is an important part of building patient trust, which is arguably one of the most crucial factors when it comes to providing quality care and improving health outcomes. You want your members and patients to feel that you care at every turn in their journey with your organization. As the National Center for Interpreting in Health Care stated in their guidance¹, “qualified human interpreters often play a crucial, but understudied role not only in ensuring effective communication but also in building empathy and trust in healthcare settings, aspects of care that AI will not be able to fully replicate.”   Where can you carefully implement AI within language services without eliminating the human approach? Can you be sure that your patients are not affected by unchecked racial biases, which can be unwittingly introduced in an AI interpreting tool by virtue of its limited training? If you do decide to offer AI interpreting services, is there an option for your patients to opt out and reach a human interpreter without any delay or other impact?  Avantpage is excited about the progress in this field and we have been incorporating AI-powered processes into our workflows for some time. By asking questions such as those suggested above, healthcare organizations can make informed decisions about the extent to which they are willing to replace human steps with AI. To learn more about how we provide meaningful language access by combining AI with human expertise, contact our team today.  

When you’re looking for a language service provider to translate your content into a language you’re not familiar with, it can be hard to gauge translation vendor quality.  After all, if you’re not a trained linguist who’s literate in the target language, you won’t be able to analyze the final product for linguistic or style errors. And you’ll probably have an even harder time comparing the final translation of one vendor with that of another vendor. Clients seek out language service providers to do what they can’t: translate content from the language they speak into a language they don’t speak. But even if you can’t speak the target language, there are still ways to check the quality of your final product—you don’t have to blindly assume that one vendor is the best one for your project simply because they’re more familiar with the target language than you are. Though it may be difficult—especially if you’re new to purchasing language services—you can indeed evaluate translation vendor quality using means other than language knowledge. Here, we’ve identified seven ways that clients can evaluate the quality of translations you’ve commissioned from a language service provider. If you’ve identified a handful of different translation vendors that you could potentially work with, one way to sort out high quality vendors is to ask about the steps of their translation process. Each provider has their own way of doing things. Typically, they’ll start with a basic translation—either conducted by a human translator, a machine translation tool or both. Many providers will follow this with an editing step, and even a proofreading step (this process is typically referred to as TEP, short for “translation, editing, and proofreading”). To make sure that you’re avoiding any misspellings and stylistic or cultural errors, these last two steps are especially important ways to assure a high-quality translation. Be sure to ask what steps are included in the agency’s standard pricing and what are add-ons. There may be additional steps offered at a slightly higher price point, so keep these things in mind as you compare vendors. Did you know: At Avantpage, we use the traditional TEP process, but have added two additional quality check steps at no added cost. Like many other industries, the language services industry has several certifying bodies that evaluate a company’s overall quality. When researching language service providers, check if they advertise their certifications on their website. The American Translators’ Association is well-recognized for their certifications of individual translators and linguists, while the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has several certifications relevant to the language industry, such as ISO 17100 Translation Services and ISO 9001 Quality Systems Management. Did you know: Avantpage is certified in both the ISO 17100 Translation Services and ISO 9001 Quality Systems Management.  You’ll also want to ask your vendor about their internal quality assurance processes. By doing so, you’ll be able to ensure they have some set of systems in place to maintain translation quality. To start this conversation, you can ask the provider if they have an internally dedicated QA team. If they do, ask them how big the team is and what each person does.  A well-structured QA department indicates that the vendor has a robust system of checks and balances, reducing the likelihood of errors in your translations. Additionally, vendors with internal QA teams, especially those with in-house language experts, may offer cost savings compared to those relying on external freelancers. This level of detail reflects the vendor’s commitment to consistent, high-quality work. Did you know: Avantpage has a dedicated QA department, with on-staff linguistic reviewers to manage quality control and pass savings on to you. Reviews from other clients can provide valuable insights into a vendor’s quality and reliability. Look for feedback on key factors like translation accuracy, adherence to deadlines, communication, and overall satisfaction. Pay extra close attention to reviews or quotes from clients in similar industries to yours, especially if they have similar project types, as their experiences will be more relevant to your needs. If possible, reach out to past clients directly for more detailed feedback. Consistent positive reviews and high client retention rates are strong indicators that a vendor delivers dependable, high-quality work across projects. Did you know: Avantpage shares regular client quotes on our LinkedIn page and on our client website page to help you see what our clients say about us. Language service providers that work in highly regulated industries such as government, life sciences, and healthcare, often have to complete audits for their clients. In doing this work, language service providers are able to document the quality of their work for clients that must comply with the strict regulations of their industry. By asking about their history of audit compliance, you can get a better feel for the provider’s commitment to quality—strong compliance with audits may be indicative of a higher-than-average level of quality. Did you know: Avantpage works annually with many clients to conduct compliance audits so they can adequately meet and report to overseeing organizations. Look into how long your potential providers have been working in the language service industry. The longer a company’s been around, the more likely they are to have established themselves as a high-quality provider. Additionally, look at the different lineup of clients they’ve worked with—if they’ve worked with high-profile clients in your industry (and maintained a long working relationship with them), they’re likely to be a good fit for your needs. Many agencies will provide case studies on their website or on request—these can provide you with valuable information about their clients and their professional relationships. If one case study strikes you as particularly interesting, you can also ask the vendor for more information about it to learn a bit more. You may also like: our Avantpage Case Studies page showcases the work our partners do to meet language access. Lastly, you’ll want to ask what additional checks and balances the vendor uses to maintain their translation quality. Ask them if they conduct regular quality tests on translations, as well as design and formatting if they’re relevant to your project. If they do, be sure to ask how often they conduct these checks, as well as how thorough these tests are. These tests can come in many different forms: internal assessments, surveys of project-level satisfaction, annual customer surveys, and more. Language service providers with structured processes for internal quality review and testing are more likely to demonstrate a commitment to accountability and continuous improvement. When you work with a vendor that employs a thorough set of checks and balances, you can rest easy knowing that quality is a top priority for them, as these measures help ensure that translations meet a consistent standard of quality, regardless of the project size or complexity. Did you know: Avantpage conducts regular surveys to get feedback from clients, and we have rigorous quality testing thresholds to hold ourselves accountable.  When you’re looking for language service providers to help you out with your next translation project, be sure to ask questions and do your research to make sure you’re getting the best quality possible. Though it can be a daunting task to evaluate a provider’s quality—especially if you’re not familiar with the target language—there are several steps a layperson can follow to assess a translation agency’s quality.  Here are seven that we’ve identified to help you out on your search: If you’re looking for a high-quality language service provider to help you out with your next translation project, Avantpage has you covered. We’ve got more than two decades of experience providing translations to clients across a wide range of regulated industries—contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to learn more.

When you’re looking for information or services from the federal government, it’s likely that you’ll try to access them online. After all, the government notes that federally run websites attract two billion hits monthly and that digital experiences are “now the default way the public wants to interact with the government.” Not only is it more convenient to access these services online—it also makes things far more accessible to individuals from diverse backgrounds, such as those with limited English proficiency (LEP) or disabilities. Historically though, internet users haven’t been all too impressed with the experience that U.S. government websites provide—from awkward design to outdated information, government websites have often left a lot to be desired for users seeking out federal services. The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experiences Act (IDEA), signed into law in 2018, aims to solve that problem. The 21st Century IDEA outlines several requirements for websites run by federal government agencies, including: In September 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued “M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience,” a memo that outlines further guidelines to help agencies meet the requirements of the 21st Century IDEA. The memo requires agencies to complete a series of reporting actions Now that we are nearly a year out from the memo’s publication, most federal agencies should have had plenty of time to implement these guidelines in their websites. However, we know that these kinds of things can be easier said than done, and your agency may find itself struggling to meet all of the requirements of the 21st Century IDEA and M-23-22. In this blog post, we’ve put together some key pointers to help you bring your agency’s website into the 21st Century and meet all of the requirements of the act, with a particular emphasis on the role of language and accessibility.
Below, we’ll break things down by eight of the requirements outlined in M-23-22, and how you can utilize language services and alternative formats to make sure people from all backgrounds can access your website and make use of the services available through your agency’s digital presence. The first requirement outlined in M-23-22 is that federal agencies’ websites must be “accessible to people of diverse abilities.” This means that agencies must make sure that their websites fully conform to the standards outlined in the most recent version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The WCAG sets several standards to make sure that websites are accessible to people with various disabilities, including, but not limited to blindness and hearing difficulties. It’s a good idea to seek out services such as document remediation and alternative formatting to make sure that your website is screen-reader friendly and easy for people from all backgrounds to access. Federal websites also need to have a cohesive design across all platforms. As described in the memo, “this includes consistent and standardized use of everything that comprises the look and feel of an agency’s product or service (such as a logo or seal, color palette, typeface, imagery, voice and tone, or product or service name).” This helps build trust with users and ensures that users are able to easily identify the website as being associated with your agency. When localizing your website for different languages and cultures, it’s important to ensure that the design standards you’ve set for your agency’s English site also come through in a way that’s culturally appropriate. Working with a language service provider that specializes in multicultural and multilingual design is crucial to make sure the localized versions of your website meet this requirement. [You may also be interested in: 14 Common Website Localization Mistakes] Federal agencies should prioritize clarity and simplicity in their content, ensuring that the information is accessible to everyone, regardless of their language or literacy level. This involves using plain language to convey complex information, which can then be easily translated into multiple languages. Additionally, content should be structured to allow for straightforward navigation, so users can find what they need quickly. By ensuring that all content is easily translatable will help reach diverse audiences, you can make federal digital services more inclusive and effective for everyone. Our plain language guidelines can help you begin to assess your content’s understandability. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to follow best practices for search engine optimization (SEO) in all your web content. This helps your site rank better on search engines like Google or Yahoo, allowing users of these tools to easily find your website. The same goes when localizing your website into another language to target people with LEP—you’ll want to work with a language service provider that conducts multilingual keyword research and follows SEO best practices so that your website comes up when people are searching for your services in different languages. It’s absolutely critical that federal agencies integrate robust security measures into every aspect of their digital platforms from the outset. This means you must ensure that all user data, including multilingual information, is protected through encryption and secure access protocols.   By prioritizing security in the design phase, agencies can safeguard against data breaches and unauthorized access, creating a trustworthy digital environment. Moreover, maintaining security standards across all language versions of the website ensures that all users, regardless of language, experience the same level of protection and reliability. Federal agencies’ websites should be designed in a way that makes it easy for users to identify and access their services. To do this, it’s a good idea to seek out and incorporate user feedback to make sure that you’re meeting their needs. This also goes for localized versions of your website—services that are easy to access in the English-language version of your agency’s site should also be easy to find for users who access your site in other languages. As you digitize your agency’s services, be sure to give users the ability to control their experience to a certain extent. This includes providing options to customize features like layout and content display through customizable text size, view configuration (i.e., allow users to view lists, tiles, etc.), and more. This customization enhances user satisfaction by enabling individuals to tailor their interactions to their specific needs, reducing the burden of completing tasks. Language preference is also an important aspect of customization—users should be able to easily identify and select their preferred language so that individuals with LEP have equal access to your services and don’t have to try obtaining them in a language that can’t easily understand. While you may be accustomed to viewing your agency’s website on a desktop computer or a laptop, most people will inevitably end up accessing your website through their mobile phone. As such, agencies should be careful to make sure that their website and any of its localized variants are easily accessible on a mobile device, as it can be confusing for users to navigate a website that has not been optimized for mobile use. It’s important that your multilingual content is available on multiple different platforms so that people from different linguistic backgrounds can make use of your services just as easily as native English speakers. As federal agencies continue to implement the requirements of the 21st Century IDEA, there are many considerations to make about language and the accessibility of your content. Not only do these requirements help bring your agency into the modern, digital era—they also enable people to access your services and programs with ease. If you’re still looking for ways to meet these requirements, Avantpage is here to help. We offer website localization services that can help your agency modernize its web presence for people from all sorts of linguistic backgrounds. Contact us today at (530) 750-2040 or [email protected] to learn more about our services.

During patient handoffs—that is, the process of transferring a patient from one caretaker or team to another in a healthcare setting—it’s hard to overstate the importance of clear, effective communication.  Patient handoffs are a key part of the medical process, typically occurring at the beginning or end of a care team’s shift, when a patient moves to another location, or, in telehealth settings, when a patient is transferred by phone or video call. Thorough and detailed communication during these handoffs ensures continuity of care, minimizing the risk of serious errors when shifting from one caretaker to the next. When it comes to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP), there’s a high risk of communication errors. Miscommunication during patient handoffs can disrupt the continuity of a patient’s care, potentially leading to minor or major errors in their care. When working with patients who have LEP, it’s absolutely imperative to bridge any linguistic gaps between the care teams and the patient, so that no information is lost during the patient handoff. Medical interpreters play an important role in any efforts to improve patient handoffs for patients with LEP. In this blog post, we’ll go over some common communication errors that come up during handoffs of LEP patients, and ways that interpreters and other language assistance services can help you improve patient handoffs within your organization. Linguistic gaps during patient handoffs can prevent one care team from adequately informing the next, leading to an incomplete transfer of information. For example, one care team may fail to accurately convey information about the patient’s treatment plan and care preferences due to the language barrier between them and the patient. In particularly grave circumstances, this missing information can delay the new care team’s response to changes in the patient’s condition, breaking the continuity in their care. To improve patient handoffs and mitigate the risk of this kind of error, interpreters can play a critical role. Interpreters serve as a linguistic bridge between doctors, nurses and the patient, ensuring that each party fully understands what is being discussed during the handoff—the presence of an interpreter empowers the patient to speak up and self-advocate if they perceive miscommunication between the two care teams during the handoff. During a patient handoff, caretakers typically give the patient information about their medication, follow-up appointments, and self-care procedures. It can be especially difficult for LEP patients to understand and properly interpret these instructions without the aid of an interpreter—depending on their level of English, they may not understand any of the instructions at all, or they may miss crucial details and follow the instructions inadequately. It’s important to make sure that the patient fully understands this information, or else it could lead to nonadherence of these important instructions. At best, this misinterpretation will be swiftly corrected by the following care team; at worst, improperly following the care team’s instructions could lead the patient’s condition to worsen. Having an interpreter available around the clock is one way to remedy this error—an interpreter allows care teams to rest easy knowing that their LEP patients fully understand the instructions they’ve been given. The interpreter can also play a more active role in these settings to make sure the patient fully understands these instructions before the handoff is finished. And by having somebody available on-call in between rounds, you ensure that somebody is available to interpret during emergencies and other unplanned instances, preventing any delays to the patient’s care. Clear communication during patient handoffs is essential to uphold legal and ethical standards in healthcare. Miscommunication with LEP patients can compromise a patient’s informed consent and lead to misunderstandings about treatment plans. Failure to ensure that LEP patients fully understand their care can not only result in medical errors and adverse health outcomes, but also legal repercussions, as patients have a legal right to culturally competent language services. Because miscommunication can have such serious impacts on a patient’s health outcome, healthcare providers have an ethical obligation to bridge linguistic gaps between them and their patients. Proper use of interpreters and language services can mitigate these risks, ensuring compliance with legal and ethical responsibilities. Language isn’t the only important factor when dealing with patients who have LEP—cultural differences must also be accounted for. A French-speaking patient with LEP from Haiti, for example, is likely to have different cultural nuances than a French speaker from Canada. As a result, it’s important to be aware of certain cultural sensitivities—a handoff that violates the patient’s cultural norms and beliefs may diminish the patient’s trust in their healthcare providers. In turn, this can have a negative impact on the relationship between the patient and the next care team, potentially leading to adverse outcomes. To improve cultural sensitivity in patient handoffs, consider working with an interpreter from a similar background as the patient if possible—in the example above, a French interpreter from Haiti, or with deep knowledge of Haitian culture, may be more well-suited to interpret than a French interpreter from France. Additionally, holding cultural sensitivity training sessions for your doctors, nurses, and other patient-facing employees can go a long way toward improving your patient handoffs with LEP patients. Accurate documentation during patient handoffs is vital for maintaining continuity of care. Linguistic gaps and miscommunication between doctors and patients can lead to incomplete or incorrect recording of the patient’s current status, treatment plans, and care needs. These inaccuracies can hinder subsequent healthcare providers from delivering appropriate care, increasing the risk of medical errors and adverse events. Working with an interpreter ensures that the care team understands and correctly documents all of the relevant information. This enables all parties involved in the patient handoff to communicate clearly and maintain precise records. Interpreters can play an important role in your efforts to improve patient handoffs for individuals with LEP. Several communication errors may arise when caring for patients with LEP—here’s how interpreters can help fix each one: At Avantpage, we provide medical interpreting services in more than 150 different languages—our medical interpreters are highly skilled in bridging linguistic gaps during patient handoffs and other critical healthcare processes. To learn more about our services, contact us today at (530) 750-2040 or [email protected].