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Election officials face a complex web of requirements when it comes to providing election translation materials for voters. With federal mandates, state regulations, and tight deadlines converging during election season, understanding what needs to be translated (and when) can feel overwhelming. This guide breaks down everything you need to know about election translation requirements, timelines, and best practices to ensure every eligible voter in your jurisdiction can access their ballot. Table of Content Understanding Federal Translation Requirements
State-Level Translation Requirements
Critical Translation Timelines
Best Practices for High-Quality Election Translations
Common Translation Challenges and Solutions
Measuring Translation Success
Frequently Asked Questions The foundation of election translation requirements comes from Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. This federal law requires jurisdictions to provide voting materials in languages other than English when specific thresholds are met. Your jurisdiction must provide translated materials if:
Section 203 currently covers Spanish, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and several Native American languages. The U.S. Census Bureau determines which jurisdictions are covered, updating the list after each decennial census.
If your jurisdiction is covered under Section 203, you must provide professional translation services for all election materials that are available in English. This includes: The requirement extends beyond just paper documents. Any information you provide to English-speaking voters must also be available in covered languages.
Many states have enacted their own language access laws that go beyond federal requirements. California, New York, Illinois, and other states mandate translations even when jurisdictions don't meet Section 203 thresholds.
Before planning your translation needs, verify:
State requirements can vary significantly. Some states specify exact materials that must be translated, while others leave more discretion to local election officials. Understanding your state's framework is essential for compliance with government translation regulations.
The most common mistake election offices make is waiting too long to begin the translation process. Here's why timing matters, and when you should start each phase. Begin vendor selection and onboarding. Research qualified election translation providers, request proposals, and establish contracts. Look for vendors with experience in election translations who understand the stakes of accuracy and timing. Audit your materials. Create a comprehensive list of every document requiring translation. This includes new content for the current election and updates to existing materials. Finalize source content when possible. While some materials depend on candidate filings and ballot measures that come later, many documents can be prepared early. Voter registration information, polling location details, and procedural instructions typically don't change. Begin translating evergreen content. Start with materials that won't change, such as voter registration guides, general election information, and instructional content. Translate ballot content. Once candidates are finalized and ballot measures are set, prioritize ballot translations. This is your highest-priority content because errors here directly impact voting. Plan for quality assurance. Build in time for review cycles. Professional translation requires multiple review passes to ensure accuracy, especially for complex legal language in ballot measures. Complete voter guide translations. These substantial documents require significant time. Voter guides often contain candidate statements, ballot measure arguments, and detailed procedural information. See how Avantpage has successfully translated California's Voter Information Guides with tight deadlines. Conduct community review. Consider having community members who speak the target languages review materials for clarity and cultural appropriateness. Finalize all translations. At this point, every document should be translated, reviewed, and approved for printing. Coordinate with printers. Ensure your printing vendors receive final files with adequate time for production, especially if you're printing multi-language documents. Distribute mail ballots. Many jurisdictions now mail ballots to all registered voters. Translated ballots must be included in mailings to appropriate households. Update online content. Make sure your website displays all translated content accurately and that users can easily find materials in their language. Download the Election Translation Timeline Roadmap Whether you're managing two languages or twelve, having a clear roadmap makes the process more manageable and ensures you meet all requirements on time. Election translation isn't just about language proficiency—it requires understanding legal terminology, ballot formatting, and the consequences of errors. Work with providers who:
Real-world example: When the California Office of State Publishing needed to translate voter materials totaling over 100,000 words into nine languages, having a specialized provider with election expertise made the difference between meeting the deadline and missing it. Much of your election content repeats from cycle to cycle. Professional translation providers use translation memory tools to:

Request that your vendor maintain translation memory for your jurisdiction. This investment pays dividends in future elections.
Elections involve many moving parts, and delays happen. Build two-week buffers between major milestones. This cushion prevents small delays from becoming compliance crises. If candidate statements arrive late or a ballot measure requires last-minute revisions, your buffer time absorbs the impact without jeopardizing printing deadlines. Professional translation ensures linguistic accuracy, but community review adds another layer of quality. Native speakers from your jurisdiction can identify:
This step doesn't need to be formal—even informal feedback from community members improves the final product. Learn more about effective language access consulting strategies.
Ballot measures often contain dense legal text that's difficult to translate clearly. The solution is to start with plain language in English when possible, making translation more straightforward and the final product more accessible. Work with your legal team to identify opportunities for clearer language before translation begins. Some content, like candidate statements, arrives close to election day. Address this by:
Case in point: When a commercial printing company needed election materials translated for three California counties with over 100 files in just 48 hours, having established processes and a dedicated team made it possible. Translation is an investment, but costs can be managed through:

Remember that the cost of non-compliance (both legal and in terms of voter disenfranchisement) far exceeds the cost of proper translation.
Election translation projects often involve coordination between election offices, legal teams, community organizations, and printing vendors. This complexity can lead to miscommunication and delays.
Solutions include: How do you know if your translation program is working? Track these metrics:
- Voter turnout among language minority groups: Are LEP voters participating at rates comparable to English speakers?
- Error reports: Are you receiving complaints about translation quality or accessibility?
- Compliance audits: Are you meeting all federal and state requirements?
- Community feedback: What do community organizations say about your materials?
Regular assessment helps you improve your program over time. The Yolo County Elections Office demonstrates how strategic language access planning can move performance ratings from last place to first in just six months.
Section 203 is a provision of the Voting Rights Act that requires certain jurisdictions to provide election materials and assistance in languages other than English. Jurisdictions are covered if they have more than 10,000 or 5% of voting-age citizens from a single language minority group with limited English proficiency. The U.S. Census Bureau publishes a list of covered jurisdictions after each decennial census. You can check the current determinations on the Census Bureau's website or contact your state's Secretary of State office. The Department of Justice also maintains information about covered jurisdictions. All materials provided to English-speaking voters must also be available in covered languages. This includes ballots, sample ballots, voter registration forms, voting instructions, polling place notices, voter information guides, absentee ballot applications, and election-related websites. Timeline depends on volume and complexity, but most election materials require 3-4 weeks for translation and an additional 2-3 weeks for quality assurance and review. Complex documents like voter information guides may need 4-6 weeks. Always build in buffer time for revisions. While machine translation technology has improved, it's not recommended as the sole solution for official election materials. The stakes are too high for translation errors. However, machine translation with post-editing by professional linguists can be appropriate for some materials. Consult with qualified translation providers about the best approach for your needs. Costs vary based on language combinations, document volume, turnaround time, and formatting complexity. Spanish translations typically cost less than Asian or Native American languages due to translator availability. Rush projects incur premium pricing. Budget 15-30% of your printing costs for translation services, though this varies widely by jurisdiction size. Yes, if your jurisdiction is covered under Section 203 or state language access laws. Web content is considered election material and must be available in required languages. This includes voter registration information, polling place locators, sample ballots, and any other information provided to English-speaking voters online. Translation refers to written materials (ballots, guides, forms), while interpretation involves spoken language assistance. Both are typically required for comprehensive language access. Translation handles printed and digital materials, while interpretation supports in-person interactions at polling places and voter assistance hotlines. Look for translation providers with demonstrated experience in government and election work. Ask for references from other election offices, verify their quality assurance processes, and confirm they have translators familiar with election terminology. Professional associations and state election official networks can provide recommendations. Non-compliance can result in legal action from the Department of Justice, civil rights lawsuits, consent decrees requiring extensive remediation, and federal monitoring of your election processes. Beyond legal consequences, inadequate language access disenfranchises voters and undermines democratic participation in your community. Federal law allows voters to bring someone to assist them at the polls, except in limited circumstances (employers and union representatives are generally prohibited). However, providing official bilingual poll workers and translated materials ensures consistent, accurate assistance for all voters and reduces potential conflicts of interest. Election translation requirements are complex, but they're also manageable with proper planning. By understanding federal and state requirements, starting early, working with qualified providers, and building buffer time into your schedule, you can ensure every eligible voter has access to the information they need. The goal isn't just compliance, it's ensuring that language is never a barrier to civic participation. When you invest in high-quality translation with adequate planning time, you strengthen democracy in your community. Start planning your next election's translation needs today. Your future self (and your community's voters) will thank you. About Avantpage: Avantpage specializes in language access solutions for election offices nationwide, helping jurisdictions meet their translation and interpretation needs while maintaining the highest standards of accuracy and timeliness. With decades of experience translating election materials for California and jurisdictions across the country, we understand the unique pressures of election cycles and deliver quality results on time, every time.

We’re excited to share an important milestone: we’ve successfully achieved SOC 2® Type II compliance. This independent attestation represents months of rigorous auditing and validates our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of data security and privacy.  What is SOC 2® Type II Compliance?  SOC 2® (Service Organization Control 2) is a framework developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) that evaluates how organizations manage and protect customer data. While many companies achieve SOC 2® Type I compliance, which examines security controls at a single point in time, Type II compliance goes significantly further.  SOC 2® Type II compliance means that an independent auditor has verified our security controls operate effectively over an extended period, typically six to twelve months. This isn't just a snapshot; it's proof of sustained, consistent security practices.  What Does This Mean For You?  Enterprise Grade Security Protection: your data is protected by security controls that meet the same rigorous standards used by Fortune 500 companies. Our systems, processes, and policies have been independently verified to safeguard your information against unauthorized access, breaches, and other security threats.  Independently Verified Controls: We don't just claim to prioritize security; we've had our controls examined and tested by independent auditors. This third-party validation gives you confidence that our security measures are both comprehensive and effective.  Continuous Monitoring and Improvement: SOC 2® Type II compliance isn't a one-time achievement. It requires ongoing monitoring, regular testing, and continuous improvement of our security practices. This attestation demonstrates that we maintain these high standards, day in and day out.  Privacy and Confidentiality: Beyond security, our compliance covers confidentiality practices, ensuring that your sensitive information is accessed only by authorized personnel and used only for intended purposes.  Business Continuity and Availability: Our audited controls include measures for system availability and business continuity, meaning we have verified processes in place to keep your data accessible and our services running, even in the face of unexpected events.  Reduce Risk for Your Organization: If you're subject to regulatory requirements or need to demonstrate due diligence in vendor selection, our SOC 2® Type II compliance simplifies your vendor risk assessment process. You can have confidence that we meet industry-standard security requirements.  Our Commitment Goes Beyond Compliance  While achieving SOC 2® Type II compliance is a significant milestone, we view it as a foundation, not a finish line. Security and privacy are embedded in our company culture and reflected in everything we do, from how we develop new features to how we train our team members.   We are committed to maintaining transparency about our security practices and continuously raising the bar on data protection. This attestation is one way to demonstrate that commitment in a tangible, verifiable way.  Questions About Our Security Practices?  We're always happy to discuss our security measures. If you have questions about what our compliance means for your specific use case, please don't hesitate to reach out to our team. 

While there’s no one-size-fits-all website localization strategy for reaching a global audience, it’s hard to overestimate the importance of speaking your target audience’s language. Although English is — for better or worse — the internet’s lingua franca, it’s also true that most people throughout the world prefer to buy products and services that are marketed in their native language. If you’re trying to reach people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds in your community and improve your organization’s language access, it’s absolutely critical to have a thorough website localization strategy. Website localization plays a pivotal role in making your services accessible to all and ensuring that folks with limited English proficiency are able to meaningfully find and use your services. But all too often, website localization is done all wrong — whether it’s using Google Translate as a shortcut or ignoring important design features, we’ve seen a lot of localization mistakes. In this blog post, we’ll go over some of the most frequent mistakes seen in website localization strategy according to our resident localization expert, Fernanda Aguilera — and why you should avoid them. Table of Contents What Is Website Localization? Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your Website Localization Strategy Real-World Proof That Effective Website Localization Drives Better Outcomes Frequently Asked Questions About Website Localization Strategy Mistakes Website Localization: Uniting WWWords with Culture Outside of the language services industry, localization is often conflated with the mere translation of text. While that’s certainly one important aspect of localization, it’s far from the only consideration to make when localizing a website. Localization services aim to ensure that your content adheres to the linguistic and cultural conventions of your target audience. Ultimately, website localization is a holistic approach that aims to bridge language access, cultural competency, and user journey to ensure that users who speak different languages are able to access your content as if it were created specifically for their locale and offers equal access to your organization’s offerings. By adapting your web content to the local language and culture, you create a more meaningful and engaging experience for diverse audiences. Website localization increases user satisfaction and improves access to services, therefore improving equity overall in areas of social determinants of health. But that’s only when it’s done well — poor localization practices like culturally inaccurate references and bad translation have been shown to damage a brand’s reputation. In a survey conducted last year, researchers found that 24% of prospective customers would trust a brand less if their website featured poor localization practices.
If you’re just beginning to localize your website into your threshold languages — or if you want to improve upon past efforts to do so — here are 14 common mistakes seen by our resident localization expert, Fernanda Aguilera you’ll want to avoid in the process. The California Department of Technology needed to rapidly localize its newly overhauled COVID19.CA.gov website during the height of the pandemic—an urgent, high-visibility project serving more than ten million visitors, including Californians with limited English proficiency. Avantpage was brought in to translate the entire site into seven languages and keep pace with daily updates covering public health guidance, state and county policies, financial relief, and essential FAQs. What began as a straightforward text translation request quickly evolved into a complex localization initiative requiring quality repair, technical integration, and a system for near real-time multilingual publishing. Key Results & Highlights: - Full localization of COVID19.CA.gov into 7 languages (Spanish, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese)
- 250,000+ words delivered on accelerated timelines
- Quality repair of machine-translated content for 3 languages + translation memory alignment for 4 others. (Learn about the differences between machine translation and translation memory.)
- Custom-built connector enabling secure, high-volume file transfer between CMS and TMS
- Daily multilingual updates, with tagging conventions to fast-track urgent or priority pages
- Near real-time publication of translated content to match English updates
- High client satisfaction for speed, technical adaptability, and budget stewardship By pairing rigorous linguistic quality with compliant workflows, this effort helped California deliver critical information to residents in their preferred languages—safely, accurately, and on time. The result was a fully accessible, multilingual resource that met the highest government expectations during a rapidly evolving crisis.  Case Study: How Avantpage Completed Website Localization for Covid19.ca.gov in 7 languages with +10 million views Avantpage combines expert human linguists with advanced translation memory tools to ensure accurate, culturally appropriate translations that meet your users’ needs and regulatory requirements. Updating translated content in real time can be challenging, especially for fast-changing information like public health alerts. Avantpage creates streamlined workflows and custom connectors to sync your content management system with their translation management platform, enabling rapid, reliable updates across all languages. Prioritizing languages is key to reaching your audience effectively. Avantpage helps analyze user demographics, community language needs, and legal requirements to determine which languages should be translated first, ensuring you reach the right people at the right time. Improper localization can cause confusion, reduce engagement, and risk noncompliance with accessibility or language access regulations. Avantpage mitigates these risks by delivering high-quality, human-verified translations and implementing processes for consistent, regulatory-compliant updates. Avantpage provides a phased, managed approach to localization. From reviewing and repairing existing translations to setting up automated workflows and prioritizing urgent content, we handle the technical and linguistic complexities so your team can focus on mission-critical work. Website localization incorporates elements of translation, design, and user experience that are critical to keep in mind when reaching diverse audiences. Whether you translate your text into the wrong dialect of a language or simply forgot to update your hyperlinks, the localization mistakes above can have a profound impact on your multilingual audiences’ ability to navigate your website. If you’re starting from scratch or need help correcting some of the above mistakes on a past project Avantpage is happy to jump in and help. Contact us online, email us at [email protected], or call us at (530) 750-2040 for more information about how our localization services can support your healthcare system, government organization, or election process and campaign.

Based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, everyone is permitted the right to receive Federal financial assistance and not be discriminated against race, color or national origin. Laws have been passed at the Federal, state, and local levels to ensure equal access to services by people with limited English proficiency (LEP). In the case of legal settings, language access is critical and should not be a reason for legal outcomes. Part of the language access that needs to be provided is via document translations. A “vital document” is a document that must be translated to ensure LEP individuals have equitable access to services, benefits, or legal rights. A “vital document” is one that needs to be translated for use to maintain equity for all people. And a document doesn’t mean just a document – it can also be in the form of videos, online content, etc. The US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) defines vital documents as “documents that affect access to, retention in, or termination or exclusion from a recipient’s program services or benefits.” Examples include applications, service benefits, written tests, and many more. In some situations, such as when recipients receive Federal financial assistance from the US HHS, those recipients must take reasonable steps to support the LEP population. Recipients include organizations such as hospitals, managed care, universities, and many others. In some situations, guidance may not be available as to what’s considered a vital document, so it’s up to the individual organization to determine what’s vital and should be translated. The goal is to ensure that language access does not affect someone’s understanding, decision-making, response times, or participation in legal or healthcare processes. And what languages should you translate into? If you’re in a regulated industry, each organization has its own requirements for threshold languages, which are languages that you must translate documents into based on the local communities. If you’re working with a client who doesn’t fall into threshold languages, you’ll still need to provide language access to accommodate the individual. In this blog, we’ll cover how to identify vital documents, provide concrete examples of documents to translate for hospitals and government agencies, and share how you can partner with a language service provider (LSP) to meet your translation needs. Organizations receiving federal funding are required to translate certain documents to ensure individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) can access services equitably. These required documents—often referred to as vital documents—are documents that affect a person’s ability to understand their rights, benefits, services, or obligations. According to the California DOJ, a document is vital “if it contains information that is critical for obtaining services or providing awareness of rights, or is required by law.” For translation purposes, the DOJ has specifically defined the following documents as vital in legal settings: These guidelines should help you determine if something is considered vital. In healthcare environments, documents to translate for LEP patients often include: Translating these documents ensures that patients understand critical information and can make informed decisions about their care. These examples give government administrators a practical framework for identifying documents to translate for LEP populations. It might be clear whether you should consider some documents to be vital, while others might be more challenging. In the case of vital documents for legal purposes, here in California, the Judicial Council of California (JCC) suggests considering three areas: criticality, frequency, and usability. If you’re trying to determine whether a document is vital, ask yourself the following questions based on JCC’s factors: These questions should provide some guidance on whether you should consider a document to be vital. Based on the results of your analysis, you may also want to create a translation priority list to make sure that the most critical documents get translated. Once you’ve decided what’s vital, the next step is to get the document(s) translated. Translating legal content is a specific skill that requires experienced, professional translators, so there’s no doubt that it can become costly. That’s why it’s best to prioritize your translations projects and strategize your approach with your LSP so that they can meet your translation requirements in the most cost-efficient and organized manner possible. We’ve been working with legal content for 20+ years. During this time, we’ve helped our clients reduce their costs over time by using these tools and following best practices. AvantMemory is a workflow to track progress, track files, and assign translators, all in real time. All linguists can access the same translation memory and terminology online in real time and share comments with each other. It also leverages the repetition of words, which means more consistency and reduced costs since you’re not translating the same words and phrases over and over. Using a style guide can increase consistency across your content, thus ensuring high-quality translations. Having a clearly defined translation memory, terminology, and style guide as part of the translation workflow can help your LSP easily understand your translation preferences, which in turn can reduce turnaround time and improve quality. There are about 6,500 languages in the world, and 66% of the world’s population speak one of these 12 native languages. But that doesn’t mean that your target audience speaks these languages. Plus, translating into all of these languages would be costly. So instead, work with your LSP to understand your needed threshold languages and other cost-saving tactics that will help you direct financial resources to where it matters the most. There’s no need for separate business systems. We can integrate our multilingual tools and technologies into your existing IT framework. We match your current processes and needs through our integrated solutions, and we put systems in place that will be more sustainable and autonomous, thereby saving you time and headaches. Emergency translation needs do come up. By acknowledging in advance that these situations do occur, we’ll get you set you up so we’re prepared for your projects. Then when there’s a last-minute need, we’ll take care of your project so there’s no slowing down in getting your rapid-fire translations (rush translation) when you have a tight deadline. Vital documents that affect access to services, rights, benefits, or legal obligations are legally required to be translated. No. Focus on vital documents that impact patient care, rights, or compliance. Yes, digital content such as online forms, portals, and multimedia that provide access to services should also be translated. Prioritize based on criticality, frequency of use, and risk of misunderstanding. Use a threshold-language approach to focus on the most impactful translations first. No. Professional translators or interpreters should handle all vital documents to ensure accuracy, compliance, and equity. It may not always be easy to determine what’s a vital document. The goal is to make sure that language access doesn’t affect someone’s understanding of any part of legal proceedings. We’re here to help strategize and translate your vital documents, as well as advise on your threshold languages. With our tools and best practices, we can help you save time and money in the long run. For more information, contact us at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040.

Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) face a unique set of challenges when it comes to the healthcare system—all too often, breakdowns in communication lead to medical errors, poor understanding, and underutilization of healthcare services.  Given that LEP individuals make up a significant portion of the nation’s population—about 25 million individuals, to be precise—it’s important that health plans have a clear, concise and multilingual communication strategy that enables LEP members to get informed and advocate for themselves. One excellent way to engage your LEP members is to emphasize omnichannel communication, a strategy that provides a single, integrated customer experience across all communication channels, like your website, member portal, printed letters, text messages, and emails. Reaching LEP members effectively requires a strategic, omnichannel approach that ensures understanding and accessibility. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at what omnichannel communication is and how you can implement it into your communications processes to boost engagement among your LEP members and enable them to make better, more well-informed decisions about their healthcare. Table of Contents What Is Omnichannel Communication? Why LEP Members Need an Omnichannel Approach Best Practices for Omnichannel Communication with LEP Members How Omnichannel Communication Drives Member Engagement Avantpage’s Role in Supporting Omnichannel Member Communication Measuring Success in Omnichannel Communication Frequently Asked Questions About Omnichannel Communication Making Every Message Meaningful-On Every Platform  Omnichannel communication is a strategy that focuses on delivering coordinated, consistent communications to members across all of your communication channels.  Here’s an example of an omnichannel approach: When sending a member a letter about their health plan in mail, you also make sure that they receive that information in their email inbox, their member portal, and perhaps even a text message notification, all in their preferred language. By delivering the same message via all of the different channels available to you and your members, you’re covering all your bases and increasing the likelihood that members open and review the content of your message. Emphasizing consistent messaging across all of your channels also creates a seamless member experience and makes it easier for members to access and understand them. An omnichannel communication strategy will be helpful for all of your members, but LEP members in particular may benefit from this approach. A major aspect of the omnichannel approach is consistency. This is also key when it comes to language access—if you send LEP members a printed letter and an email in their preferred language, but messages in their member portal and SMS are all in English, you simply aren’t reaching them as effectively as their English-speaking counterparts. Additionally, LEP members may have different preferences around technology than English-speaking members—a recent study found lower engagement in telehealth services among LEP individuals. This could suggest that print messaging may lead to higher engagement among LEP individuals. And the risks of a single-channel approach to your communications are clear: If you only send members emails, they’re more likely to miss appointments, misunderstand their benefits, and lower satisfaction overall. On the flip side, using multiple channels of communication allows members to select the one that works best for them. Implementing an omnichannel communication strategy doesn’t have to be daunting—by following the best practices listed below, you can implement a thorough, well-formed omnichannel communication strategy that boosts engagement for your LEP and English-speaking members alike. For letters, brochures, and other messages that you send via mail, it’s important to use plain language and clear, easy-to-read formatting. Be sure to work with a language service provider to develop multilingual translations of these letters to send letters to members in their preferred language. Using concise and simple language in your original English letter makes the translation process significantly smoother and faster, so try to keep things as straightforward as possible, avoiding complicated jargon and convoluted sentence structure. Your organization’s member portal should have an accessible design and language that complies with the rules laid out in the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508. Members should easily be able to switch to their preferred language. As with print communications, any messages or instructions that members receive in the portal should feature plain language that’s easy for readers to understand. Emails should, generally speaking, be a bit shorter than letters sent via physical mail or digital portal messages, while text messages should be no longer than 300 characters. Keep the message brief and direct them to links to the member portal or resources on your website in case they want or need to access more information. And again, be sure that these messages are culturally appropriate and translated into your members’ preferred language. Be sure to have multilingual support options—whether that means hiring multilingual staff to operate the phone lines or working with an interpreting agency for on-demand access to an over-the-phone interpreter. Automated messages should be translated into multiple languages and, just like with written messages, should feature clear scripts written using plain language. Across all of these channels, be sure you’re conveying the same message to members—they should not be receiving conflicting messages between multiple different channels. In order for omnichannel communications to work, every message you send about a particular topic should complement one another.  A well-executed omnichannel strategy boosts member engagement by improving the flow and accessibility of information. When members receive clear messages across their preferred channels, they’re more likely to understand next steps and act accordingly. For LEP members, this means providing those reminders in their preferred language, no matter what channel you use to send it—whether it’s via print, email, portal notifications, or text message. This consistency increases the odds that they’ll see and react to time-sensitive information, such as preventive care reminders or screening instructions. This approach also builds trust. When members receive messaging that is accessible and aligned across formats, they feel more supported by their health plan and more confident navigating their benefits. Omnichannel communication also helps reduce gaps in care. Coordinated messages—for instance, a mailed notice followed by an email and a portal alert—reinforce one another and decrease the likelihood of missed appointments or misunderstood instructions. Over time, this leads to higher participation in preventive care and, perhaps most importantly, better health outcomes for disadvantaged populations. At Avantpage, we’re making omnichannel communication easier with AvantSend, our HIPAA- and ADA-compliant platform that handles every step of member communications—translation, printing, mailing, and tracking. AvantSend uses artificial intelligence to coordinate print, digital, multilingual, and accessible communications. On average, our 200+ healthcare clients have saved $36 per file processed through AvantSend and their print letters have been delivered to members two days faster.  Using AvantSend, you can send critical member correspondence to your members in more than 150 different languages. Built-in QA and compliance checks allow you to rest easy knowing that you’re not compromising accuracy or security. And that’s not to mention the fact that the platform has built-in, real-time tracking from intake to delivery confirmation, so that you can gain instant insight into status, timelines and compliance.  Omnichannel communications become a breeze with AvantSend—use it to reduce administrative burden and speed up the process of developing and sending out member communications across several different channels. As you work to implement an omnichannel communication strategy, you’ll want to track the following KPIs to be sure that you’re headed in the right direction: In general, you should expect these numbers to increase as you improve the consistency of your communications across all channels. It’s also a good idea to conduct surveys of members to get feedback and determine how satisfied they are with your services and outreach efforts. Audits should also be regularly conducted to ensure compliance with relevant regulations. Use these KPIs and feedback from members to fine-tune your communication strategy. As technology and legal regulations evolve, so too does the way we communicate—what works well today may not necessarily work a year from today. By tracking these KPIs and collecting member feedback, you can be sure that your efforts are continuously improving in response to trends in member preferences and technological advancement. It’s a coordinated strategy to reach members across multiple channels — print, digital portals, email, SMS, and voice — with consistent and accessible messaging. Preventive care reminders, appointment notifications, benefits explanations, surveys, and health program communications. LEP members often face language and literacy barriers; using multiple channels ensures messages are received, understood, and actionable. AvantSend coordinates print, email, portal, and voice messages in 150+ languages while ensuring accessibility (ADA/508) and compliance. By taking an omnichannel approach to your communications, you give members the option to engage with you using the channel of their preference.  For LEP members, a multilingual, omnichannel communication strategy is an absolute must-have, as it empowers them to fully understand and act on important messages regarding their healthcare. In turn, your LEP members will be more likely to take advantage of your services and advocate for themselves within the complex healthcare system. Not only does this boost trust and member satisfaction—it also improves  health outcomes for patients with LEP. To help make your communications strategy more inclusive and accessible to all members, consider working with Avantpage. Our AvantSend platform makes it easy to implement a multilingual, omnichannel approach to your communication strategy—contact us today online, email us at [email protected], or call (530) 750-2040 to learn more about how we can help you reach all of your members on any channel.

If you want to make sure your services are accessible to as many people as possible, multilingual outreach is pretty much non-negotiable. After all, if people with limited English proficiency (LEP) don’t know about your services or how to use them, they can’t fully benefit from what you offer. This is why multilingual outreach campaigns are so important—they ensure that people with LEP are informed about critical services, from healthcare to government. Launching outreach campaigns in multiple different languages allows you to tap into diverse populations and expand your scope. As with any sort of communications or marketing process, it’s important to track the success of your multilingual outreach efforts. In this blog post, we’ll identify several key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can use to assess the ROI of your multilingual outreach efforts. We’ll also look at some strategies to boost these KPIs and improve your work if you find that you’re lagging behind a bit. Table of Contents What Is Multilingual Outreach? Why Measuring ROI Matters for Multilingual Outreach Key KPIs to Track the Effectiveness of Multilingual Outreach Calculating Your Return on Investment How Technology Supports Measuring Multilingual Outreach ROI Best Practices for Continuous Improvement Frequently Asked Questions About Multilingual Outreach ROI You Can Measure: The Power of Multilingual Outreach Multilingual outreach is any form of coordinated communication campaign that’s delivered in multiple languages to reach a diverse group of members. Take, for example, a social media marketing campaign: In addition to launching ads in English, a multilingual outreach campaign would also feature translations (or transcreations) of those ads targeted to users whose primary language is not English. Multilingual outreach encompasses a wide range of different media—from print media like letters, informational brochures, and paperwork to digital media like email, text messages, and phone calls. Pretty much any form of communication that your organization sends out can be localized into different target languages to create a multilingual outreach campaign. In doing so, LEP individuals—who make up nearly 10% of our country’s population—will better understand what your organization does and will be more inclined to actually take advantage of your services and programs. Just like any other communication effort, measuring the ROI of your multilingual outreach will allow you to understand where your organization is doing well and where you can improve. Measuring ROI gives you a better sense of where your resources need to be allocated—perhaps you want to invest more time and money into your multilingual outreach efforts. Maybe you’re even thinking about hiring full-time staff members to oversee language access projects. If you’re able to show that your multilingual outreach efforts have increased engagement and generated revenue for your organization, you’ll be more likely to convince key stakeholders of the value of investing these resources into multilingual outreach. Additionally, multilingual outreach may also be a factor for regulatory compliance, depending on your industry. Particularly in healthcare and government, regulations like the ADA and Section 508 mandate certain language access standards, making effective multilingual outreach an absolute must-have. While multilingual outreach can be costly—high-quality translations aren’t free, after all—it’s worth the investment, thanks to the increased engagement and member satisfaction it tends to drive. In this section, we’ll take a look at six different KPIs you can use to track the effectiveness of your multilingual outreach efforts. To gauge member engagement, you can look at the following metrics: A well-done multilingual outreach campaign should lead to an increase on all of these metrics. There are a couple of ways to measure comprehension and accuracy. First, you can conduct a survey that directly asks members about the comprehensibility of your communications and marketing efforts. Another way to do so is to look at the rate of errors and misinterpretations members make when interacting with your office—for example, you can compare the number of errors on paperwork members made before and after you translated said paperwork into different languages. To look at member satisfaction, you can use the net promoter score (NPS) or conduct satisfaction surveys. Satisfaction surveys should ask members for feedback on clarity, relevance, and the accessibility of your messages. Multilingual outreach campaigns should boost participation in relevant programs; look at the participation rates of members from different linguistic backgrounds in certain programs. For example, if you put out ads in Spanish and Chinese for a wellness program, expect to see higher participation rates among Spanish and Chinese-speaking members. Successful multilingual outreach will likely reduce call volume, as members are less likely to misunderstand the communications they receive from you. As time goes on, you may end up saving time and money as you spend less on correcting errors, translating, and re-issuing communications. Track engagement, utilization, and outcomes among LEP members over time to determine whether multilingual outreach is successfully reducing access gaps. Compare performance not only to English-speaking members, but also to each group’s historical baselines and known structural barriers. By tracking these KPIs and more, you can easily calculate your return on investment in multilingual services. Here are just a few simple formulas you can use to calculate the return on investment of multilingual outreach efforts. Using the table below, fill in your past and current (after updating your multilingual outreach strategy) metrics to estimate time and cost savings: For example, let’s say you’re calculating Experience ROI—perhaps your phone operators field 900 calls per month from LEP members. If you implement a thorough and clear multilingual outreach strategy that cuts those calls down to 400 per month, you can expect to save anywhere from $2,500 to $7,500, depending on how much each call costs you. Want to learn more about how to boost your organization’s efficiency and savings? Check out this recording of our webinar, “Modernizing Member Communication Workflows.” Technology makes it much easier to measure the ROI of multilingual outreach with accuracy and consistency.  Platforms like AvantSend centralize multilingual and accessible communications, offering integrated reporting and real-time dashboards that surface engagement, compliance, and member feedback across languages. Instead of relying on scattered reports or delayed data, you can see how campaigns perform the moment they launch and quickly spot where outreach is resonating—or falling short. Automation further streamlines the process by reducing manual tracking and ensuring that messages go out accurately and on schedule. These workflows minimize errors, improve data quality, and give you a clear, reliable view of how effectively you’re reaching LEP members. Effective communication doesn’t end with one or two messages—it’s a continuous process that needs to be adjusted over time to ensure clarity. Organizations should strive for constant improvement in their multilingual outreach efforts, and measuring the above KPIs can help you adjust your approach accordingly. Below are some best practices to use these KPIs for continuous improvement: If your organization interacts with populations from different linguistic backgrounds in any sort of capacity, it’s a good idea to launch multilingual outreach campaigns. Additionally, if your organization provides healthcare, government, or legal services, state or federal regulations likely require some sort of multilingual outreach efforts. This depends on several factors, such as:

- The size and scope of your multilingual outreach efforts
- The language service provider you work with for translation and localization
- The languages you need your content translated into (low-resource languages tend to be more expensive)
- Whether or not you use machine translations or other technological solutions 

Your best approach is to consult several different language service providers to get a quote for your project and determine which option is right for you.
Here are a few examples of multilingual outreach campaigns:

- A social media advertising campaign that’s translated into multiple different languages and targeted to speakers of each language.
- A customer service hotline that allows members to speak with a representative in their preferred language (instead of just English).
- Discharge papers and care instructions translated into a patient’s preferred language. When done well, multilingual outreach delivers measurable, repeatable results.  By tracking clear KPIs, you can see exactly how your efforts improve engagement, strengthen equity, and make services more accessible to all members, regardless of their linguistic background. Gauging your performance based on these metrics can turn a basic compliance requirement into a strategic advantage, showing where outreach is succeeding and where targeted improvements can drive even greater impact. Avantpage offers a streamlined way to manage, track, and evaluate multilingual outreach. With tools like AvantSend, we help teams understand the true ROI of their efforts and confidently scale what works. If you’re interested in learning more about how our translation services can help you expand your reach, contact us online, email [email protected], or call (530) 750-2040. Watch the full webinar and download our free workbook about how healthcare organizations can identify areas of improvement for multilingual member communication workflows and how to calculate ROI.

Multilingual event planning requires careful preparation to ensure all attendees can engage fully, whether your event is in-person or online. From understanding your audience’s language needs to coordinating with interpreters and technology, successful multilingual events rely on thoughtful organization. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to execute both multilingual virtual event planning and navigating in-person events successfully. Ready to make your next event fully accessible and engaging? Contact Avantpage to request a consultation or free quote. Table of Contents - Step-by-Step Guide to Planning for Multilingual Events - 1. Gather Information About Your Attendees - 2. Set Expectations for the Attendees - 3. Inform the Interpreter(s) of Which Language and Dialects Will Be in the Audience - 4. Coordinate With Your Language Service Provider Early - 5. Translate Event Materials - 6. Conduct Test Runs with Your LSP - 7. Set Expectations at the Beginning of the Event - 8. Capture Feedback at the End of the Event - 9. Use the Feedback for the Next Event - How Avantpage Supports Multilingual Event Planning - We Provide On-Demand Event Interpreters - AvantInterpret - Additional Language Support Services for Your Event - Frequently Asked Questions About Multilingual Event Planning - Make Every Guest Feel Understood, In Every Language Planning an event is already a complex process, and accommodating audiences who speak different languages adds additional steps to ensure everyone can participate fully. This guide will walk you through best practices for multilingual event planning, so your attendees feel included, engaged, and confident throughout the experience. Learn as much as you can about your attendees well before the event so you can give them the best experience. Ask questions about their language, including things like demographics and age. For example, if an attendee is a Chinese speaker, you’ll want to know the region that the person is from and their age. A 70-year-old man from New York City will require a different Chinese dialect than a 22-year-old woman from San Francisco. Collecting this information allows your language service provider (LSP) to select the best interpreters for your audience. Tip: Ask attendees if they have accessibility needs, such as hearing or vision impairments, to ensure your event is fully inclusive. Attendees may feel uncertain or uncomfortable before the event. Prepare them by sharing: Providing this information in the attendees’ language well in advance is critical for engagement. Clear communication can set the tone for a successful multilingual event. Give the interpreter(s) the language and disability information you received from your attendees so the interpreter(s) will be as prepared as possible to address the audience. As we mentioned before, languages can have nuances that vary per region, so the interpreter(s) should speak in whatever language and dialect are most relevant to the audience. Also, the speaker may need to change the cadence of the speech. Start organizing with your LSP at least two weeks in advance, though more time is always better. Early coordination allows: For multilingual virtual event planning, this step is even more critical to troubleshoot platform or connectivity issues before the event. Work with your LSP to have all materials translated into the necessary languages. This includes: For virtual events, ensure digital materials are screen-reader friendly and accessible to attendees with disabilities. Have a plan for distributing hard copies or digital copies to participants in advance. Be prepared for the event! Run through whatever interpretation requirements you may have with your LSP. Test out the equipment, even if you can’t do it in the event’s facility. If possible, have backup equipment.  Doing test runs is even more important if the event is online, as you want to address any technical issues before the event. For virtual events: Also, check in with your interpreters to verify that they’ve got everything they need.  At the start of the event, set clear expectations: Setting expectations should make the attendees feel more comfortable and engaged. When the event ends, ask for positive and negative feedback on the event, language services, and technology. Ask the limited English proficient (LEP) participants and participants with disabilities how accessible the event was, and ask for specific ways to improve the services. Review the feedback with the necessary participants, from the speakers to the LSP to IT support, then take that feedback into consideration for the next event. Avantpage provides expert support when planning for a multilingual event, with a focus on providing a suite of fully custom language access services: When you need to communicate with individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) in real time, you need an interpreter. From determining the language to finding the right linguist, this can feel challenging — that’s where Avantpage comes in. Our interpreting services include: AvantInterpret was designed to make connecting with qualified interpreters simple, secure, and fast. Through AvantInterpret, you can access our vast network of interpreters for OPI or VRI, giving you round-the-clock access in over 150 languages. This platform allows you to focus on the conversation, not logistics, whether it’s a one-on-one appointment, a community service interaction, or a virtual meeting. Watch our explainer video about the AvantInterpret platform. Beyond interpreting, Avantpage provides comprehensive support to ensure your multilingual event runs smoothly and inclusively. For virtual events, our team offers platform setup and technical guidance, including testing audio, video, and simultaneous interpreting features, so your online attendees can participate seamlessly.  We also provide accessibility guidance, helping you accommodate LEP participants and attendees with disabilities by ensuring materials, communication channels, and event logistics meet their needs. By combining technical support with a focus on accessibility, Avantpage helps you deliver a professional, inclusive, and engaging experience for all participants. We can also work with you to ensure all of your printed and digital materials are translated and are culturally appropriate. If needed, we can also provide desktop publishing services, which ensure your branding and formatting are adapted to your multilingual messaging.  We can provide the translation and localization of: Request a consultation or free quote to make your next multilingual event accessible, engaging, and seamless with Avantpage and AvantInterpret. At least two weeks is recommended, but earlier is better for large events or those with attendees who will need accommodations in multiple languages. Absolutely! We provide simultaneous interpreting for multiple languages, both in-person and virtually. Interpreters work via a virtual platform with separate audio channels for each language. Attendees select the channel for their preferred language. Conferences, webinars, workshops, board meetings, educational events, and more — both in-person and virtual. Effective multilingual event planning ensures that every attendee, regardless of language or ability, can engage fully. By combining translation, interpreting, and localization with thoughtful planning, your organization can improve engagement, accessibility, and attendee satisfaction.We’ve helped clients put on multilingual conferences, educational events, business meetings, and more. Whether your next event is in-person or virtual, Avantpage can help you deliver a smooth, inclusive experience. Call us today or request a free quote to get started.

Preserving endangered languages is a mission-critical task for linguistic and translation professionals worldwide. Beyond the historical implications of protecting indigenous languages, it’s also important to safeguard the native tongue of global cultures for individuals who currently speak the language. Let’s take a look at what’s involved in preserving languages and what it means for the translation industry as a whole. Table of Contents Benefits of Preserving Endangered Languages 1. Provides Equal Access to Critical Resources 2. Languages Teach Us About Culture and History Why Language Loss Matters Examples of At-Risk and Endangered Languages How the Translation Industry Can Help What You Can Do to Help Preserve Endangered Languages Frequently Asked Questions About Endangered Languages Improve Your Organization’s Linguistic Diversity with Avantpage Preserving endangered languages offers far-reaching benefits that go beyond communication. Each language carries cultural identity, ancestral knowledge, and access to essential resources for those who speak it. By protecting and revitalizing these languages, we strengthen communities, promote inclusivity, and ensure that future generations can continue to learn from the wisdom embedded in every word. As languages grow closer to becoming extinct, the circle of people who speak them grows smaller. However, whether the language is as common as Italian or as rare as Pitkern, existing speakers still need access to translation resources. Efforts to preserve endangered languages help translators provide services to people in communities where their native language is not primarily spoken. Through crowdsourced or direct translation projects, speakers of endangered languages can access community resources like healthcare, education services, and other necessities that directly impact their quality of life. According to UNESCO, more than 40% of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages are endangered, and one language disappears roughly every two weeks. When a language dies, entire communities risk losing not only their ability to communicate but also their connection to ancestral knowledge, stories, and cultural identity. This makes translation professionals key advocates for linguistic equity. By helping to translate documents, signage, and resources into lesser-spoken languages, they ensure that speakers of endangered languages are not excluded from essential systems of care and communication. Human language is a fluid, ever-changing form of communication. Its content and structure change over time to reflect the culture of its native speakers and hold clues to its history. Naturally, one of the biggest benefits of the preservation of endangered languages is the impact it has on the understanding of how languages grow and develop. Since communication is a fundamental part of human interaction, the study of indigenous languages offers limitless insight into humanity itself. “Every language has poetry,” says Bob Holman, host of PBS program Language Matters. “Each [one] holds a little piece of information or a lot of information, can hold information about medicines and health, can hold information about the constellations in the sky. And that’s information that, if you lose the language, you lose that connection with that place, with that way of thinking, with tens of thousands of years of that language’s lineage.” As with any avenue of historical study, researching a language’s past can provide clues to its future. Endangered languages are particularly vulnerable, so it’s important to learn all we can from them before they go extinct. Beyond history, every language represents a unique worldview. For example, the Hawaiian and Māori language revitalization movements show how reconnecting with native tongues strengthens cultural identity and community pride. In both regions, immersion schools and media programs have helped new generations become fluent speakers, proving that with support and documentation, even highly endangered languages can be brought back to life. When a language disappears, humanity loses more than just words — we lose access to generations of collective wisdom. Many endangered languages contain ecological, agricultural, or medicinal knowledge specific to the lands where they developed. Without these languages, valuable information about sustainable living, environmental balance, and local biodiversity may be lost forever. Language loss also has deep social implications. Communities that can no longer use their mother tongue often face barriers to education, healthcare, and civic participation. Preserving endangered languages supports inclusivity, empowerment, and human dignity — values that align closely with Avantpage’s mission to ensure everyone has equal access to information, regardless of the language they speak. The translation and localization industry plays a critical role in language preservation. Translators, linguists, and language service providers are uniquely positioned to: Anyone can contribute to language preservation, whether by volunteering time to translate documents, supporting local revitalization projects, or simply learning and using endangered languages in daily life. Translators and global businesses can also partner with preservation organizations to ensure that Indigenous voices remain heard and respected in the digital era. Organizations like The Enduring Voices Project and the Endangered Language Project are making great strides in language preservation. However, the continued globalization of the internet is positively impacting efforts as well. “While the dispersal of speech communities across the globe has led to the demise of some languages, technology popularized by globalization is playing an equally important role in their revitalization. Through the internet and mobile communications, people are reconnecting with fellow speakers using digital tools to revive languages on the endangered list,” writes Yale linguistics expert Mark Turin. UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger lists 576 languages as critically endangered, but thousands more are threatened. The translation industry needs to support measures that slow down or mitigate the loss of an important part of global cultures. Equally, businesses that provide resources to individuals with limited English proficiency must do what they can to help lessen the impact of languages that may be lost forever. Endangered languages are languages at risk of falling out of use because their speakers are shifting to a dominant language or because intergenerational transmission is declining. When a language loses its youngest speakers and relies only on older generations, it faces a high risk of extinction. Preservation efforts are critical for maintaining language diversity and protecting human history embedded in linguistic traditions. Language documentation preserves the grammar, vocabulary, and cultural knowledge of a language before it disappears. Organizations like the Endangered Languages Project and resources like Ethnologue compile detailed data on language use, language vitality, and speaker populations. Documentation ensures that languages can be studied, revitalized, and used to support human rights, including the right to cultural and linguistic expression. The number of endangered languages worldwide is estimated at over 2,500, though some sources suggest up to 3,000. Certain regions, like Papua New Guinea, are particularly linguistically diverse, with hundreds of small language communities at risk. Other countries, such as Canada, also report multiple endangered Indigenous languages. Organizations like the United Nations and national governments work to support these communities and track language endangerment. Speakers often include both older generations and younger speakers, though in many cases, the youngest members of a language community may not be fluent. Revitalization efforts aim to pass languages to the youngest speakers, maintaining language vitality and ensuring that knowledge tied to the language is not lost. Languages carry unique knowledge about human history, including local traditions, human rights norms, ecological practices, medicine, and social customs. When a language disappears, this cultural heritage vanishes. Protecting endangered languages helps preserve both cultural identity and valuable historical insights for researchers and global communities, from New York to remote villages worldwide. - Support language documentation projects and the Endangered Languages Project.
- Collaborate with linguists to record, transcribe, and archive languages.
- Promote language diversity in education, media, and digital platforms.
- Provide resources to language communities to maintain language vitality.
- Recognize that access to one’s native language is a human rights issue. The United Nations and UNESCO maintain initiatives to track language endangerment, fund revitalization programs, and promote human rights related to cultural and linguistic identity. Urban centers like New York also host workshops, language classes, and community gatherings to support immigrant and Indigenous language communities. At Avantpage, we believe that linguistic diversity is essential to cultural understanding and inclusion. Every language represents a living story. By supporting translation, education, and revitalization efforts, we help those stories continue to be told. If you’re ready to expand your language access program, use one of our online forms to reach out or call (530) 750-2040.

Following plain language guidelines is an important starting point for producing source material that’s ready for translation services. Although translators can produce some pretty impressive work, they aren’t miracle workers. For a translator to create a high-quality, easily readable document in the target language, the source text must be equally high in quality and just as easy to read. In other words, the source text should be written in plain language. When creating content that you know will be translated later on, following plain language guidelines is a proactive step toward a final product that’s as easy to read as the source text. Here’s our guide to observing plain language guidelines and making sure your writing is as clear and concise as possible. Table of Contents What Is Plain Language? When to Use Plain Language? Example of Plain Language in Action Why Is Plain Language Important for Translation Services? Plain Language Guidelines & Writing Tips Frequently Asked Questions About Plain Language Guidelines Make Your Message Clear The term “plain language” refers to writing that’s concise and easy to understand on the first read. Although federal agencies are already required to produce official communications using plain language under the Plain Writing Act of 2010, anybody can — and should — use plain language in their internal or external communications. Plain language is particularly helpful when you need to have a document translated. When translators have to wade through lots of dense, confusing language, it can slow down the translation process, creating unnecessary or burdensome work for the translator.
If you’ve ever asked somebody to explain a long-winded, convoluted topic to you “in layman’s terms,” you already have some familiarity with the concept of plain language. In fact, the phrase “plain language” is essentially a, well, plainer way of referring to layman’s terms. Here are a few instances when using plain language is best:  Plain language is any form of writing that emphasizes clarity and conciseness. When writing in plain language, a writer’s goal is to ensure that the text is easy for readers to understand and quickly gloss over. Here’s an example of some decidedly not plain language provided by the US General Services Administration: “Apply if you are aged (65 years old or older), blind, or disabled and have low income and few resources. Apply if you are terminally ill and want to receive hospice services. Apply if you are aged, blind, or disabled; live in a nursing home; and have low income and limited resources. Apply if you are aged, blind, or disabled and need nursing home care, but can stay at home with special community care services. Apply if you are eligible for Medicare and have low income and limited resources.” Now, here’s a revised version of that passage, written to follow plain language guidelines: “You may apply for Medicaid if you are: Notice how much easier it is to follow the second one. While the first example consists of a single, nearly 100-word paragraph, the second uses simple sentence structure and a series of bullet points to make the text a little bit easier on the eyes. Plus, it cuts the total word count down to 60. Ultimately, plain language allows individuals to find the information they need faster, making complicated topics easier to understand for wide, non-specialized audiences. Plain language isn’t just important for improving accessibility in general communications. It’s also a way to simplify the translation process from the get-go. By doing this, you can get faster translation delivery times, increased accuracy, and potentially lowered costs. Writing in plain language makes things easier for the translator(s) rendering your texts into the target language. Because translators aim to convey the meaning of the source text in the target language, content writers should aim to make that meaning as clear as possible. It may not be possible to use plain language in every piece of content — highly regulated areas like the pharmaceutical industry and legal services often have specific and formal terminology that can’t be easily simplified into plain language. Thus, it’s important to keep your target audience in mind — a scientific review committee will surely understand more niche terms than the general public. When producing public-facing content like blogs, informational pamphlets, or advertisements, plain language is critical to ensuring that both the translator and the target audience can easily understand your intended meaning. Here are a few basic tips that we recommend for writers creating content they intend to have translated later on: While jargon can be difficult to avoid, it’s also important to note that the general public may not have a solid understanding of terms you use daily in your field. For instance, the medical condition “myocardial infarction” is more commonly known as a “heart attack.” Unless you absolutely have to use the phrase “myocardial infarction,” the term “heart attack” will likely serve you better, as it’s just plain easy for readers to understand. Long sentences packed with several different ideas can be hard to follow. Try to stick to one idea per sentence and try to keep the average number of words per sentence down to 20 or fewer. When writing, you’ll often find that some words are redundant or unnecessary. For instance, why would you call something “very good,” when you can call it “great?” Not only is “great” a more specific word — it’s also quicker to read than “very good.” More often than not, you can replace phrases like “very,” “really,” or “actually,” with more purposeful words. In addition to being a key tenet of plain language guidelines, this rule’s also a staple in grade-school English classes. Passive voice constructions tend to be wordier than those in the active voice. As a result, they add unnecessary words to the sentence and can make it harder for a translator to understand the meaning. Moreover, active voice generally illustrates the main idea of the sentence more effectively than passive voice. From the writer’s perspective, direct subject-verb-object sentences may seem a bit dry and repetitive. But the truth is that they’re much easier to follow than winding sentences that have all sorts of additional clauses and information that can be expressed in a separate sentence. Directness in your word choice is also key. Whenever appropriate, try addressing the reader directly using the personal pronoun “you,” to help engage them and form a connection between the reader and writer. Plain language guidelines provide rules and best practices to make written communication clear, concise, and easy for the intended audience to understand. They focus on improving readability, reducing technical terms, and structuring content logically with tools like headings and bullet points. All healthcare and federal employees are encouraged to follow the federal plain language guidelines when creating content for the public, including government communication materials, reports, and .gov websites. Compliance ensures accessibility and transparency for citizens. Please refer to PlainLanguage.gov or learn how to build a terminology glossary for more accurate translations. The U.S. government provides resources through PlainLanguage.gov, maintained by the Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN). This site includes training materials, examples, templates, and the latest updates on federal plain language guidelines. Plain language improves accessibility, promotes citizen engagement, and ensures that critical information, such as public services, health guidance, or legal documents, is understood by everyone. Agencies like the National Institutes of Health use plain language to make medical and scientific information accessible to non-experts. - Use clear headers to organize content.
- Write short sentences and simple paragraphs.
- Avoid unnecessary technical terms unless explained.
- Focus on the important information and what the reader needs to know.
- Use active voice and clear verbs. Yes! Plain language training is available through federal agencies and online resources. First-time users can access beginner-friendly modules on plainlanguage.gov, while advanced courses are offered to help improve government communication skills across departments. Federal agencies may submit a compliance report annually to demonstrate adherence to federal plain language guidelines, showing how they have improved readability, simplified language, and enhanced communication for the public. Using plain language principles can simplify the translation process. It will help language service providers connect with your message and convey it in simple terms. As a quick reminder:  If you’ve already got your content drafted up in plain language and need professional translation services, contact our linguists and translators online or call us at (530) 750-2040.

If your organization provides Medicare or Medicaid insurance plans, the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) acts as the scorecard that shows just how well you’re caring for your members. HEDIS, developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), is a standardized set of performance measures that are used to assess the quality of care that healthcare organizations provide to their patients. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) requires many health insurance plans to report their HEDIS data as a part of their Medicare Star Ratings—as such, HEDIS data can have a strong effect on a provider's revenue and enrollment.  While health outcomes are a significant part of HEDIS measures, communication, engagement, and patient satisfaction play a key role as well. So, if you’re looking to improve your organization’s HEDIS performance, you may want to take a look at your member engagement and communication strategies. In this blog post, we’ll take a deeper look at what HEDIS is and how health plans can improve their performance by rethinking their engagement strategy. Table of Contents What Are HEDIS Measures? The Link Between Member Engagement and HEDIS Performance Common Barriers to Effective Member Engagement Inclusive, Accessible Member Correspondence: The Foundation of Engagement Member Engagement Strategies That Directly Impact HEDIS Measures Measuring Success: Tracking HEDIS Improvement Through Engagement Avantpage's Role in Supporting Better HEDIS Outcomes Frequently Asked Questions About HEDIS Measures and Member Engagement Your Message, Measured: Turning Communication Into Better Outcomes More than 235 million people across the United States are enrolled in health plans that report data on HEDIS measures, making it one of the most widely used performance improvement and quality assurance tools in the healthcare industry. The NCQA uses around 90 different HEDIS measures to evaluate health plans. These measures are organized into six domains of care: By collecting and analyzing this data, HEDIS enables health plans to monitor performance and improve member outcomes. HEDIS measures are also an important way to meet regulatory requirements, while giving members and stakeholders a transparent, standardized way to compare the quality of care across plans. Member engagement is a way to improve your performance on HEDIS measures—when members understand their benefits, feel connected to their care teams, and receive timely, accessible communication, they’re more likely to schedule preventive visits, complete screenings, and adhere to treatment plans. This in turn improves a health plan’s scores in HEDIS domains like Experience of Care and Utilization and Risk-Adjusted Utilization. It should come as no surprise then, that health plans with strong engagement strategies consistently report higher HEDIS scores, especially when outreach is personalized, multilingual, and easy to understand. When health plans successfully engage their members, members feel more trust toward their health insurance provider, leading to improved patient satisfaction and an increased willingness to use their health insurance and advocate for themselves within the healthcare system. Research shows that improved care coordination—a form of member engagement involving “the deliberate effort by two or more healthcare professionals to facilitate and coordinate proper delivery of care to a patient”—also leads to improved performance on HEDIS measures, often by more than five percentage points. Below are a few examples of some common issues health plans encounter when trying to boost member engagement: - Limited language access: It’s hard to engage members if you’re not speaking their language. If you don’t offer thorough medical translation and interpretation services, members with limited English proficiency are much less likely to make use of their health plan.
- Poor health literacy: All too often, health plans communicate to their members in jargon-laden benefits letters, notices of action, and other media. But this can be difficult for patients to understand, making them less likely to engage and utilize their insurance.
- Outdated outreach methods: While there’s certainly a place for print media and letters, keep in mind that many members prefer to use more modern means of communication like email, text message, and online member portals.
- Limited accessibility: Without options like large print, screen-reader compatible digital content, or ADA-compliant materials, members with disabilities are less likely to understand their benefits, complete preventive care, or follow through on recommended screenings. Improving member engagement starts by tackling these problems head-on. By developing a more accessible communication strategy, you can better engage your members and boost your organization’s performance on HEDIS measures. Effective member engagement begins with clear communication. Inclusive and accessible correspondence ensures that all members, regardless of language, literacy level, disability, or cultural background, can confidently navigate their care. This involves using plain language, ADA- and Section 508-compliant formats, multilingual materials, and multiple communication channels. Members who receive clear, understandable messages are more likely to schedule preventive screenings, follow treatment recommendations, and complete necessary follow-ups. Examples of inclusive communication include sending appointment reminders in a member’s preferred language, providing visually clear benefit explanations, and offering audio or video versions of critical information for those who need alternative formats. This foundation of trust and clarity empowers members to take charge of their care and directly supports HEDIS measures related to Effectiveness of Care, Access/Availability, and Experience of Care. In short, even the best care programs may fail to reach the members who need them most without accessible correspondence. Below, we’ll take a look at five different strategies that health insurance providers can take to improve their communication and member engagement strategies. Tailor outreach to each member based on demographics, claims history, and identified care gaps. Personalized reminders for screenings, vaccinations, and chronic condition management increase adherence and close gaps, directly improving HEDIS measures like Effectiveness of Care. Ensure appointment notices, telehealth links, and coverage information are easy to understand and accessible in multiple formats. Using mail, email, SMS, and portal notifications reduces barriers and encourages timely care. Use inclusive language, culturally relevant translations, and community-specific messaging to foster respect and belonging. When members feel respected, they tend to report higher satisfaction. This improved satisfaction goes hand in hand with improved member engagement, as members are more likely to trust and engage with their health plan if they feel satisfied with it. Encourage preventive visits and follow-ups with personalized outreach to plan members. Automated systems can flag members who are overdue for screenings, which will help your organization manage utilization and ensure appropriate care delivery. Integrate AI, automation, and translation tools to scale outreach while maintaining accessibility and language compliance. Technology ensures timely, consistent communication that reaches all members and supports better performance on HEDIS measures. However, it’s important to integrate technology carefully—there should always be a human in the loop to review the messages you’re sending out. Once you’ve implemented the above strategies and begun working to improve your member engagement, there are a few key metrics you can look at—aside from overall HEDIS scores—to determine the success of your efforts: As you track member engagement and HEDIS improvement, try to establish feedback loops that capture member responses and interaction data. For example, after sending out preventive care reminders, you can track open rates, click-throughs, appointment completions, and survey feedback. These insights allow you to adjust messaging, choose the most effective communication channels, and personalize outreach for different member populations. And keep in mind that improving member engagement is an ongoing process—the way we communicate today is very different from the way we communicated 20 years ago. That means that your engagement strategy needs to be constantly evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of your members. At Avantpage, we’ve recently launched a tool to help you improve member engagement and boost performance on HEDIS measures: AvantSend. AvantSend is our new, AI-enabled correspondence platform that supports 150+ languages and ensures ADA and Section 508 compliance. This platform handles all of your communication needs, from translating letters to printing them out and mailing them directly to your members, speeding up the turnaround time for delivery by about two days. Here’s an example of how you can take advantage of AvantSend: Using AvantSend, a health plan was able to automate end-to-end mailing of preventive screening reminders, including multilingual and ADA-compliant formats. By tracking responses and appointment completions, the organization was able to follow up with members who hadn’t scheduled screenings, ultimately increasing participation rates and closing care gaps more efficiently. By streamlining your communications workflow and getting correspondence out to your members faster, AvantSend boosts member satisfaction and bridges gaps in care—in turn boosting your HEDIS performance. HEDIS measures are standardized performance metrics used by health plans and the NCQA to evaluate care effectiveness, accessibility, experience, and utilization. Higher engagement leads to better follow-up, preventive care, and satisfaction — directly improving scores in domains like Effectiveness of Care and Experience of Care. Personalized outreach, multilingual materials, accessible appointment reminders, and culturally responsive communication all boost engagement and HEDIS outcomes. When members understand their benefits and next steps, they feel respected and informed — leading to higher satisfaction scores and stronger plan loyalty. AvantSend automates inclusive, ADA-compliant, multilingual member correspondence — helping health plans communicate clearly and consistently across all populations. Clear, inclusive communication is essential for helping members understand their benefits and take advantage of them.  Ultimately, when communication is inclusive and intentional, members are more engaged, overall satisfaction improves, and your HEDIS measures get even better. In this sense, a good communication strategy can be seen as a clinical quality tool, rather than just a small administrative task. If you’re looking to boost your HEDIS performance, Avantpage can help. We offer translation, interpretation, and accessibility services that can transform the effectiveness of your communication strategy. And that’s not to mention our latest development, AvantSend. Get a free quote online or call (530) 750-2040 to learn more about how we can help you modernize member correspondence and drive measurable quality outcomes.

ADA compliance ensures that all people, including those with disabilities, have meaningful access to your organization’s services, products, and communications. For organizations serving diverse audiences, providing accessible translation, interpreting, and localization services isn’t just best practice — it’s a legal requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In this guide, we’ll cover what ADA compliance is and a few ADA compliance services that can help your organization adhere to ADA guidelines. If you’re ready to make your organization accessible to everyone, contact Avantpage to get started. Table of Contents - What Are ADA Compliance Services? - Key Aspects of ADA Compliance in Language Services - ADA-Compliant Translation - ADA-Compliant Interpreting - Localization and Cultural Adaptation - Industries Where ADA Compliance Is Critical - How Avantpage Supports ADA Compliance - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About ADA-Compliant Services - Avantpage Is Your ADA Compliance Partner ADA compliance services ensure all individuals, including those with disabilities, can meaningfully access your content, products, and services. This includes providing: - Translation of written materials
- Interpreting for verbal communication
- Localization and cultural adaptation
- Accessible digital content Compliance is not just about translating words — it’s about ensuring information is usable, understandable, and culturally appropriate for every audience. The ADA is structured around five titles, three of which are especially relevant for organizations providing language services: Key takeaway: ADA compliance goes beyond simple translation — it’s about creating meaningful access at every point of communication, whether written, spoken, or digital. Compliance is nuanced, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Depending on the types of products, services, or information your organization offers to the public, you may need one or all of the following ADA-compliance services:  Translation ensures that written content is accessible to individuals with communication disabilities, including vision, hearing, or speech impairments. Key services include: Examples: Interpreting services ensure verbal communication is accessible for individuals with hearing or speech disabilities. Key services include: Examples: Localization ensures translated content is meaningful and culturally appropriate for the target audience. Examples: Localization ensures that compliance isn’t just about language, but about effective, culturally aware communication. ADA compliance is required across sectors, but particularly in areas where communication access can impact safety, rights, or health. - Healthcare: Patient forms, medical instructions, and appointment communication must be accessible.
- Government: Voting materials, public service notices, and in-person services (polling, city meetings).
- Education: Enrollment forms, course materials, and announcements must be fully accessible.
- Businesses & Public Services: Customer communications, websites, signage, and digital platforms. Avantpage provides expert ADA compliance services across translation, interpreting, and localization, ensuring your organization meets legal and accessibility requirements. Our language services include: Request a free quote or consultation with Avantpage to make your documents and communications fully accessible. Translation makes written content accessible, while interpreting ensures verbal communication is accessible. Both are essential for ADA compliance. Any organization covered under ADA Titles I, II, or III should ensure its communications are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Absolutely! Interpreters can work in-person, over the phone, or via video platforms that meet ADA standards. Vital documents like legal agreements, medical forms, HR materials, member communications, and digital content. Our team combines professional translation, interpreting, and localization expertise with accessibility best practices to create content that is accurate, culturally appropriate, and fully ADA-compliant. ADA compliance is more than a legal requirement — it’s a commitment to inclusivity and accessibility for all audiences. By providing ADA-compliant language access services, your organization can communicate effectively, reduce legal risk, and demonstrate a commitment to equity.Whether you need large print, braille, audio formats, sign language interpreting, or localized member correspondence, Avantpage can help. Give us a call or request a free, no-obligation quote to ensure your organization meets ADA standards and communicates with all audiences effectively.

Translation, at its core, is about providing meaningful access for all people to the services, products, and general information that you provide. For organizations serving diverse audiences, ensuring documents meet ADA standards is key to compliance and accessibility. ADA translation is based on the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law passed in 1990 that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and public or private spaces open to the general public. This law requires organizations to make communication accessible for individuals with disabilities, including vision, hearing, or speech impairments. In this article, we’ll explore the basics of what ADA-compliance services are and who needs ADA translations. Or, if you’re ready to ensure your documents are accessible to everyone, contact Avantpage to start your ADA-compliant translation project. Table of Contents - What's Involved in ADA-Compliant Translation? - Who Needs ADA Translation? - How Avantpage Supports ADA-Compliant Translation - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About ADA Compliant Translations - Mitigate Risk with ADA-Compliant Documentation ADA-compliant translation ensures that people with communication disabilities can fully engage with your content. Depending on the needs of your audience, this may include: By planning ADA-compliant translation carefully, organizations can ensure all audiences can interact with documents, websites, and materials in a meaningful way. Not sure which formats your organization needs? Speak with a translation and localization expert to find out! ADA-compliant translation is essential for organizations across all sectors, especially those that are federally regulated. The ADA includes five titles: Organizations must ensure communication is effective for individuals with disabilities, regardless of how frequently they interact with them. Fields with specific ADA requirements include: - Healthcare: Patient forms, instructions, and notices
- Education: Enrollment forms, course materials, and announcements
- Government & Elections: Voting materials, notices, and official communications
- Businesses & Public Services: Websites, customer communications, and signage Non-compliance can result in penalties, legal action, and reputational damage. By integrating ADA-compliant translation into your workflow, your organization can reduce risk while ensuring inclusivity. Avantpage provides expert ADA-compliant translation services designed to meet the needs of all audiences. Our language services include: - Large print, braille, and audio translations for vision accessibility
- Sign language and oral interpreters for hearing accessibility
- Speech-to-speech transliteration and communication boards for speech accessibility
- Full compliance with ADA guidelines and accessibility best practices
- Translation for documents, digital content, and multimedia Our team ensures that every project meets accessibility requirements while maintaining linguistic and cultural accuracy. Whether you need ADA translation for healthcare, education, government, or business, Avantpage can guide your organization through the process. Ready to make your documents fully accessible? Request a free quote or consultation with our ADA-compliant translation experts. Digital content can be adapted with screen-reader-friendly formats, alt-text descriptions for images, captioned videos, and accessible PDFs. Avantpage ensures all formats meet ADA standards while maintaining linguistic accuracy. Yes. Providing accessible documents reduces the risk of non-compliance penalties, lawsuits, and reputational damage. ADA-compliant translation demonstrates your commitment to accessibility and equity. Begin by identifying which vital documents, forms, or content need to be accessible. Or, if you’re not sure, reach out to a language service provider like Avantpage. We’ll help you identify which documents need to be translated to meet ADA guidelines and your audience’s needs. Ensuring your organization’s documents and communications are accessible doesn’t have to be complicated. With ADA-compliant translation services from Avantpage, you can provide meaningful access to all audiences, meet regulatory requirements, and demonstrate your commitment to inclusivity. Whether you need large print, braille, audio formats, or sign language interpreting, our expert team is ready to help. Contact Avantpage today at 530-750-2040 or request a free quote online to make your content fully accessible and compliant.