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2024 is an election year here in the United States, and you know what that means: another year packed with political messaging and get-out-the-vote campaigns. And while local politicians and presidential candidates alike will certainly be doing work to court voters and increase voter turnout, there’s one tool that’s often overlooked in discussions about how to improve voter turnout: language access.  While the Voting Rights Act sets a sort of bare minimum for language access in elections, districts that go above and beyond these requirements are likely to see increased voter turnout among linguistic minorities in the country. As the country’s linguistic profile continues to diversify, language access in elections has become absolutely crucial for fostering inclusivity and enhancing voter participation, thus fortifying the democratic process.  The Voting Rights Act plays a pivotal role in ensuring that folks all across the country have equitable access to our elections — under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, certain jurisdictions must “provide bilingual written voting materials and voting assistance regarding covered minority languages.” To get a bit more specific, the provision stats that jurisdictions must develop bilingual voting materials in a given language if the population of voting-age citizens who primarily speak that language meets the following criteria:
 While these criteria set a decent baseline for which languages to cater to, they don’t necessarily show the whole picture. As a result, jurisdictions looking to improve voter turnout must take action to make sure they’re providing adequate language access in this year’s elections — even if that means going the extra mile and going beyond the guidelines set in the Voting Rights Act.  Here, we’ll take a look at how language access has been proven to increase voter turnout, and how you can leverage language access to improve voter turnout ahead of this year’s presidential election. When Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to include language access regulations back in 1975, voter registration among linguistic minority groups skyrocketed. In 1974, just under 35% of Hispanic citizens were registered to vote — by 2006, that number doubled, an increase that some scholars believe to be, at least partially, a result of the language access provisions added to the act in 1975. Likewise, San Diego County in California saw a 40% increase in voter turnout among Vietnamese Americans after voluntarily offering Vietnamese language assistance during the 2004 election (Los Angeles County, too — there, Vietnamese language assistance was shown to boost voter turnout among Vietnamese voters by 60%). While San Diego County wasn’t necessarily required to provide language assistance under the regulations outlined in the Voting Rights Act, it turned out that doing so had a significant impact on voter turnout. Additional research shows that the raw data used by the Voting Rights Act to calculate which languages to provide language access for doesn’t quite tell the full story. In California, for example, just 4% of registered voters opted to use language assistance when voting. However, 11% of the state’s residents who are eligible to vote have limited English proficiency, meaning that not all of the state’s potential voters are being reached. To improve voter turnout, jurisdictions should go above and beyond the requirements of the Voting Rights Act — like San Diego Country did back in 2004 — to identify populations of eligible voters that they could be missing out on by following the minimum guidelines of the act. Beyond bolstering voter turnout, language access initiatives foster stronger bonds of trust between elected officials and minority communities. By ensuring equitable access to voting resources, governments demonstrate their commitment to inclusivity, thereby fostering greater civic engagement and participation. This, in turn, contributes to a more representative and responsive political landscape — one of the core goals of the Voting Rights Act to begin with. As we navigate another busy election year, it’s important to understand the critical role that language access plays in fortifying the foundations of our democracy. Language access allows linguistic minorities to fully participate in our elections. If you’re looking to increase voter turnout in your jurisdiction, there are several resources and recommendations you can look to for improving language access: At Avantpage, we work with election offices all across the country to develop creative language access strategies in elections on every level. If you’re looking to increase voter turnout through language access, don’t hesitate to contact us today at info@avantpage.com or (530) 750-2040.

All too often, conversations about language access focus on languages that are spoken most widely throughout the country — think languages like Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog or your local threshold languages. And while it’s certainly important to cater your language access plan to speakers of these languages, it’s also important to factor in the unique considerations that have to be made when providing language access to speakers of less widely spoken Indigenous languages as well. While an organization might have all the tools and resources needed to provide services to a Spanish speaker with limited English proficiency (LEP), chances are that its language access services for, say, Q’anjob’al speakers, are much more limited. And that’s a big problem — Indigenous people from Latin America make up a large proportion of immigrant families in shelters, meaning organizations that regularly work with immigrants and refugees must be prepared to offer their services in Indigenous languages. According to a 2021 report, roughly 62% of immigrant families in shelters were from Guatemala, 30% of whom spoke an Indigenous language like Q’anjob’al or Nahuatl. Many organizations and government agencies across the country are struggling to meet the needs of Indigenous language speakers with LEP, oftentimes in spite of an otherwise well-informed language access plan. Our country simply needs more training and certification programs to create opportunities for bilingual speakers of Indigenous languages to prepare themselves for a career as an interpreter or translator. More funding toward the creation of such programs is one long-term solution, but in the meantime, there are several other things we can do now to fill the gap. At Avantpage, we’ve worked hard to improve language access services for Indigenous languages at organizations — here are a few considerations and approaches your organization ought to keep in mind when providing language access services to Indigenous communities.
As a result of centuries’ worth of repression, Indigenous languages are not particularly well-understood outside of their speaker communities and as such, providing language services in these languages is a bit more of a challenge than languages like Spanish or Chinese, for instance. The number of immigrants speaking languages Indigenous to the Americas is bound to grow in coming years. Immigration – and the ability to support new immigrant communities – is a critical force driving the United States’ economy and growth. And in the coming years, we can expect to see even more Indigenous people of Central and South America immigrating here in response to climate change and political instability – it’s important that we are able to serve them in their language to ease things up as they transition to life in a new, unfamiliar country. To enhance language access for Indigenous languages, organizations must adopt strategies that address the unique situation of these languages.
Proactive planning is essential for any language access services, but perhaps especially so for Indigenous languages, as it can be harder or more expensive to procure services in these languages at the last minute. You may want to consider setting up contracts in advance through a request for proposal (RFP) process, a less formal request for inquiry (RFI), or even research to find out what “piggy-back” contracts are already in place that you can leverage. This way, you can establish a relationship with language service providers (LSPs) who are well-qualified to fulfill your needs and differentiate contracts based on the services you need (perhaps one provider is better suited for threshold languages but another is specialized in indigenous languages). During the contractual design, you might consider multiple vendors for added resources, or even separating your RFP/RFI requests based on language or modality (onsite, remote, translation). This can better ensure the right organization can qualify to submit their services to the bid, expanding your own pool of resources and options. Know the different services offered — ideally opt for an agency that can provide in-person interpreting, but if it’s necessary phone or video interpreting is also a viable service, and a critical back-up option to have available. Low resource languages often encounter more difficulty in coverage. Back-up options, like the use of relay interpreting (3 interpreters across 3 languages), can help close the gap. A trusted LSP may be able to help you connect with and onboard freelance interpreters and translators as well. Additionally, if you prefer to gather a pool of freelancers to provide their services as needed (instead of or in addition to working with a larger agency), court websites can be a useful tool for finding potential freelancers who work in the language you’re looking for.
While bilingual staff are not a replacement for professional interpreters, they can be helpful in situations where an interpreter is not immediately available. Bilingual staff can communicate with individuals who have LEP and help them access your services as needed. Hiring bilingual staff is not sufficient on its own — it’s important to conduct a thorough linguistic assessment to ensure that they’re able to perform all the necessary functions of the job in the target language. Training and placement are also crucial — if you have multiple office locations, it will be most useful to place bilingual staff in locations where they are most likely to use the language. Conduct demographic research to see which languages are in highest demand at specific branches so you know where to place bilingual staff. It’s also a good idea to maintain a bilingual staff directory — this has been used among state and local government offices as a back up option, and it serves well to facilitate internal access to diverse language skills. However, it’s imperative to document staff qualifications and provide guidance on when to utilize bilingual staff based on their expertise, ensuring effective language support.
Community-based organizations (CBOs) play a pivotal role in addressing the unique needs of local Indigenous and immigrant communities. Partnering with these organizations, which represent community needs, can enhance outreach and build trust with local immigrant populations and Indigenous-language speakers. CBOs can offer insights into local needs and facilitate a more profound understanding of historically underserved communities. For more information on how and why you should partner with CBOs, take a look at our guide to partnering with CBOs.
Of course, you can’t provide adequate language access services to somebody if you’re unable to identify their language. All too often, Indigenous languages of Latin America are mistaken for Spanish due to a general lack of awareness of these languages. And while it can certainly be difficult to identify the language somebody else is speaking if you have no prior knowledge of it, there are a handful of tools that can help. Language identification posters, I-Speak cards, and phonetic pronunciation guides aid frontline staff in correctly identifying languages. Make sure the tools you’re using for language identification include several Indigenous languages so that you’re able to identify the languages that are in demand. Training programs for staff can also enhance awareness of linguistic diversity, mitigating the risk of mislabeling languages. In non-urgent situations, it’s worthwhile to suggest alternatives to the individual, such as rescheduling an appointment for a date when an on-site interpreter will be available.
Demand for language access in Indigenous languages is bound to rise — be sure your organization is just as prepared to offer services in Indigenous languages like Mixtec or Nahuatl as it is to offer services in English or Spanish. Here are a few strategies you can employ to improve language access for these languages: At Avantpage, we’re acutely aware of the unique considerations that must be made when providing language access for Indigenous languages. To learn more about how our interpreting, translation, and localization services can fit into your language access plan for Indigenous languages, contact us today at (530) 750-2040 or info@avantpage.com.

2024 is shaping up to be a big year in politics — with the Republican Party’s primary elections already under way, there are a lot of elections to watch out for. Voting in these elections is an important aspect of civic life here in the United States, but many residents with limited English proficiency (LEP) may struggle to fully participate in these elections, despite actively contributing to our society. While the Voting Rights Act ensures that election materials will be translated into high-demand languages across various districts, it’s important to take a look at how language access can shape our electoral process. “Whenever any State or political subdivision [covered by the section] provides registration or voting notices, forms, instructions, assistance, or other materials or information relating to the electoral process, including ballots, it shall provide them in the language of the applicable minority group as well as in the English language,” reads Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, which was amended in 1975 to improve language access in the electoral process. We’re at the beginning of a big election year with a lot on the line — here at Avantpage, we partner with election organizations across the US and in some of the most diverse states like California, Texas, Florida, and New York to promote language access in the electoral process and gain unique insights into the demand for language access in elections. And there are some creative ways that election offices can engage residents with LEP — take the Yolo County Elections Office’s “Train the Trainer” program as an example. The program trained leaders of religious and community-based organizations that work closely with the county’s non-English speakers to help community members register to vote. As we look toward the upcoming primary elections and the big event in November, here are some important language access considerations that electoral officials should be aware of. Translating ballots and voter information guides into the relevant languages is a collaborative process — states and other political subdivisions need to work closely with trained language professionals to ensure high quality translations. Election offices should work closely with a trusted language service provider to review all of the materials that need translating and determine a course of action for making those materials accessible in the languages you need. By working with a language service provider that specializes in electoral materials, you can mitigate the risk of mistranslating something and improve the quality of these materials overall. You also don’t have to start from scratch either — the Election Assistance Commission has compiled a list of language access resources for elections, including best practices for different locales across the nation. Many relevant, evergreen materials such as the National Mail Voter Registration Form have already been translated into multiple languages, so you can leverage resources that are already available. There’s a lot that needs to be translated for every election. Once you’ve identified the already-translated materials available to you, it’s time to figure out what you do need to translate. At Avantpage, we’ve done thousands of translation projects for our election clients. Over the years we have found some materials that are most commonly translated across the board. Here are some common materials that will likely need to be translated: Interpretation is also an important consideration to make as well — you’ll want to have on-site interpreters and also work with an agency that offers phone or video interpretation as a back-up. You can also hire bilingual poll workers to strengthen community trust in the election and place them at polling stations that are likely to have a higher proportion of LEP speakers of a specific language. When working with a language service provider, it’s also important to consider the volume of translated materials you need. Take a look at historical data , anticipated deadlines, and future election dates to see which months have had especially high demand in your area so that you can prepare ahead of time. You’ll also want to figure out which materials are time-sensitive and which aren’t. Request translations well ahead of time wherever possible, and try to batch together documents and languages so you can avoid having to pay minimum fees.
According to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, states and other political subdivision (i.e., cities, counties, etc.) must provide translated voting materials in regions where “more than 10,000 or over 5 percent of the total voting age citizens in a single political subdivision (usually a county, but a township or municipality in some states) who are members of a single language minority group, have depressed literacy rates, and do not speak English very well.” In 2021, a total of 331 jurisdictions met those criteria and had to provide language assistance to voters with LEP. That number appears to be on the rise too — in 2016, only 263 jurisdictions had to do so. These numbers are updated every five years using data from the American Community Survey, so while things may not change much for the 2024 elections, it’s likely that there will be even more demand in the 2028 elections, given the rising population of individuals with LEP in this country. Now is as good a time as any to begin looking into languages other than English that are spoken into your community to prepare for future changes. And even if your jurisdiction isn’t required under the Voting Rights Act to provide these materials, it doesn’t mean you can’t — by improving language access in your local elections, you can boost voter turnout and civic engagement within communities that have historically been less likely to participate in elections. As we head into what’s bound to be a busy year for election offices across the country, it’s important to keep in mind that improving language access can increase voter turnout by making the electoral process more accessible to individuals from all backgrounds. Here are some things to consider when thinking about language access in this year’s elections: At Avantpage, we’re proud to work closely with election offices across the nation. If you need translation or interpretation for any upcoming elections, contact us today at (530) 750-2040 or info@avantpage.com.

Developing and executing high-quality diversity initiatives — both internally and externally — should be a no-brainer for any organization looking to promote equity and inclusion in their community. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have become major pillars in today’s world — and for good reason too. And it’s not just a moral imperative for organizations to engage communities of all socioeconomic backgrounds — embracing minority-led businesses and amplifying non-English voices is also a strategic move for agencies looking to have a more equitable impact on their community. One way to improve your organization’s approach to diversity is to begin working with vendors that uphold the core tenets of diversity and employ workers from many different backgrounds, whether that be in terms of the language they speak or their gender identity. Chances are, your agency works with other businesses to outsource certain, more specialized tasks — whether that’s translation, copywriting, design, videography, etc. If you’re looking to improve your DEI strategy, working with diverse, minority-owned suppliers for these tasks can be a good start. By working with diverse suppliers to provide services in an equitable manner, your organization can become well-poised to reach communities that have historically been underserved. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the profound impact that working with diverse suppliers can have on your organization’s approach to equitable services.
By intentionally choosing to work with diverse suppliers, you contribute to the economic empowerment of underrepresented communities. This in turn helps close gaps in equity, while also allowing your organization to develop a more diverse and innovative approach to the services you offer. Research has shown that minority-owned small businesses are at a higher risk of failure than their counterparts — during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Black-owned businesses were significantly more likely to close their doors than white-owned businesses. When you make an effort to contract diverse suppliers, you can help promote economic development for groups that have historically been socioeconomically marginalized.
Improving language access is an important way to foster diversity within your organization. After all, DEI isn’t just about diversity in gender or ethnicity — it’s also about linguistic diversity. As such, working with specialized language service providers to translate your content and marketing materials is an important part of promoting diversity within and outside of your organization. By translating your message into another language, your message has the potential to resonate with members of your community that you may not have been reaching before. For example, roughly 39% of the United States’ Spanish-speaking population has limited English proficiency — that means that translating your content and messaging into Spanish could have a profound impact on your organization’s engagement levels. Given the United States’ growing diversity, multilingual engagement is an absolute must. Making your services and programming accessible in multiple languages — whether that’s Spanish or another language spoken widely throughout your locale — ensures that you’ll be able to reach people who have historically had difficulty in seeking them out.
Employing vendors from a diverse range of backgrounds can also make your organization more innovative. When you bring fresh perspectives and worldviews into your process, your team is bound to come up with more varied and creative ideas than it would if it were composed of people from similar backgrounds. This results in more innovative solutions to problems and can help your organization achieve its goals and beyond.
Just as it’s important to promote the economic growth of minority-led businesses, it’s also critical that we amplify non-English voices in both our internal and external communication. By boosting non-English messaging, your organization can show its support for linguistic diversity and enhance your message’s ability to resonate with prospective clients. This goes beyond mere translation; it involves understanding the nuances of different languages and the cultures to which they belong. Organizations that prioritize linguistic diversity create an environment where everyone’s voice is heard, fostering a culture of respect and appreciation for differences. This can, in turn, improve individuals’ perception of your organization, and, in the case of internal communications, make employees from diverse linguistic backgrounds feel more welcome in the workplace.
At Avantpage, we pride ourselves on our status as a diverse supplier of language services. Our founder and CEO Luis Miguel Musi started Avantpage with the goal of making public services and healthcare more accessible to residents of the United States who have limited English proficiency. We not only champion diversity in our vendor relationships but also within our internal teams. As of 2023, our workforce comprises 40% Latino/Hispanic employees, and 60% of our leadership positions are held by women. We take pride in being a minority-owned and small business, actively contributing to the economic empowerment of underrepresented communities. Here are just a few ways that working with diverse suppliers can help your organization grow to its fullest potential:

Earlier this year, Avantpage teamed up with the Athena Group, a women- and minority-owned consulting firm focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), to host a virtual event on how to forge connections and build resilient, inclusive communities. This event brought together government stakeholders seeking to enhance their approach to language access and equity within their organizations. Attendees were eager to explore successful strategies and identify common challenges, and one overarching theme emerged: the challenge of creating programs and services that center the voices of diverse communities with limited English proficiency (LEP) from the very beginning of a project. If you missed our session with the Athena Group, fear not — in this blog post, we’ll dive into some of the key topics discussed at the event, namely common challenges and solutions to engaging diverse communities from the very get-go.
If your organization is looking for ways to better serve people with limited English proficiency, it’s important to seek input from individuals who actually have LEP. Asking for and actually incorporating feedback from diverse communities into your programs and services is critical to making sure that your organization can effectively serve these people. However, that can be a lot easier said than done. Here are some of the main challenges organizations face when it comes to trying to engage diverse communities, particularly those with LEP — and more importantly, solutions that you and your team can implement to get around those challenges. Rural communities often face barriers that communities in big cities and even the suburbs do not — research shows that people living in rural areas typically face a lack of important resources compared to their urban counterparts. And as the population of folks with LEP in rural areas grows, organizations need to be able to address the unique needs of people from diverse linguistic backgrounds living in rural areas. Building relationships with local organizations is key, as this helps bridge the gap between your organization and the community you’re targeting. By forming partnerships with local organizations that are knowledgeable about a given community in a rural area, your team can be more considerate of the needs of the rural communities that you serve. Community members with LEP are fairly unlikely to participate in — or even show up to — public meetings conducted entirely in English. After all, would you feel comfortable attending a town hall in a language you can’t understand without any accommodations made to help you do so? Make sure to offer language services like interpreting and translation at public gatherings with local communities, so individuals with LEP feel welcome and like their voice will be heard. Leading up to the event, make sure to clearly communicate what language access services will be available, so that prospective participants know what to expect. And beyond language services, it’s also important to make sure that the timing and location of your meeting are accessible as well, so that you’re able to reach as many community members as possible. Offering incentives for participation is also a good idea — by compensating participants for time otherwise spent, you lessen the burden of attending a meeting. Engaging with frontline communities can be challenging. Leveraging existing relationships with trusted community groups like nonprofits and community-based organizations (CBO) is a good strategy to invite under-connected populations such as communities of color, low-income individuals, youth, elderly communities, immigrant communities, those with disabilities, and young families. And if you don’t already have existing relationships with local CBOs, read our guide on partnering with CBOs and how they can be an especially helpful resource in your efforts to engage local communities. One reason people — particularly people with LEP — often feel disengaged or uninterested in an organization’s services is simply because they are presented using language that is challenging to understand. Oftentimes, organizations use complicated jargon that might make sense internally, but confuses their audience. Working with a skilled copywriter and a language service provider is crucial to ensuring that the language you use doesn’t overwhelm and alienate your audience. It may also be helpful to brainstorm different ways to present the information as well — infographics can be a really helpful way of simplifying and visualizing concepts without writing too much copy. Plus, they may also be easier and quicker to translate for audiences from different linguistic backgrounds, as they tend to be lighter on copy than, say, a blog post or a dense informational pamphlet. Low participation and attrition rates can also hinder your organization’s progress. To address this, you may want to consider providing hourly stipends for targeted engagement as a way to alleviate the costs of participation, which might include taking time off work, arranging childcare, and transportation. Alternatively, you could also consider providing meals or other items that could encourage people to show up. Additionally, try to be mindful of the information that you collect during registration, especially when working with immigrant communities. And as we’ve mentioned before, be sure to inform attendees about the availability of free-of-cost language services and accessibility — while it’s great to offer language access services, they won’t be very helpful in attracting participants if prospective participants are unaware of their offering. Acknowledging that past actions may have caused harm to the marginalized communities that you’re looking to serve is a crucial step in co-creation, as it allows community members to develop a sense of trust in your organization. Start with internal work, such as implicit/explicit bias training, assessing the team’s intercultural competence, and developing a community charter to begin paving the way for more respectful and equitable collaboration.
It can be hard to engage diverse communities and incorporate their perspectives into your work — but it’s absolutely critical for any organization to do so. Here are some recommendations for mitigating some of the challenges your organization might encounter when attempting to co-create with diverse communities like immigrants or people with LEP:
At Avantpage, we’re proud to work with organizations looking to better engage communities with LEP. We provide translation, interpreting, and localization services to help you connect with people from all linguistic backgrounds — contact us today at info@avantpage.com or (530) 750-2040 to learn more.

Public libraries are a lot more than just book repositories. Historically, public libraries in the United States have served as safe havens for community members from all walks of life. Beyond providing us with a wealth of free literature and knowledge, they also host programming, events, and resources that aim to promote a sense of equity within the community. Typically offered at little or no cost, these unique library programs serve to democratize human knowledge and make it more accessible than ever. Libraries play a particularly crucial role in fostering linguistic diversity and equity within their community by addressing the unique needs of minority populations. Libraries across the country may offer unique library programming like English as a second language (ESL) instruction for members of the community looking to sharpen their English skills, as well as programming and events hosted in different languages spoken prominently throughout their locale. And that’s not to mention that libraries also offer a huge collection of books, talking books, movies, and other media in several different languages spoken throughout their local community. In this blog post, we’ll examine the work that five public library systems are doing to promote a sense of equity in their local communities, taking a particularly close look at their work for community members with limited English proficiency (LEP).
In an effort to meet the needs of Santa Barbara’s growing population of Spanish speakers, the Santa Barbara Public Library formed its Spanish Outreach Team back in January 2022. Prior to the launch of the Spanish Outreach Team, the library’s employees had noticed a higher demand for Spanish-language services, and made a concerted effort to hire more Spanish-speaking staff. But to make sure that Spanish speakers in the community were aware of the diverse range of services the library system offered, they decided it wasn’t enough to hire Spanish-speaking staff — they also needed to target the Spanish-speaking community in their outreach efforts. By doing so, the staff say they’ve made Spanish-language titles more accessible to Santa Barbarans with LEP, while also allowing them to tap into just as much knowledge as their English-speaking counterparts.
New York City is widely cited as the most linguistically diverse place in the world, with more than 800 different languages represented among the city’s residents. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the city’s public library system is embracing the city’s linguistic diversity and promoting equity through multilingual services. New York residents with LEP can enroll in free English courses at the library, while learners of other languages can also take classes and participate in conversation groups as well. Members of the library also have free access to Mango Languages, allowing them to sharpen up their language skills from their own homes. Meanwhile, the library system also has a comprehensive outreach strategy that involves translating marketing materials and information on the library’s services into several languages spoken throughout the community. The library also has a huge slate of events planned for Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month this month, including bilingual storytimes for Spanish-speaking children. And every April, the library system hosts an annual World Literatures Festival, celebrating books and authors from all across the world.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 led to one of the largest refugee crises in Europe’s history. While most resettled in various locales throughout Europe, more than a quarter million found themselves displaced in the United States. To promote cultural awareness among residents of their local community, Kansas University and the nearby Lawrence Public Library partnered up earlier this year to host a series of panels and events on Ukrainian culture, history, and the ongoing war in the country. And this past spring, the library also offered Ukrainian courses for members of the community interested in familiarizing themselves with the national language of Ukraine.
Much like the city of Santa Barbara, Washoe County, Nevada has also seen a pretty big surge in the local Hispanic and Latino population over the last few years. With that rising population, the local library system has seen demand for Spanish-language services increase significantly. So, the Washoe County Library began hosting bilingual story time events, in which a reader shares a story to children in both English and Spanish. The team behind this effort believes that reading to children in both Spanish and English allows Spanish-speaking children to hear the language outside the home and “normalize” using it outside of their household. Over time, the library system has begun offering a wide range of programming and resources for Spanish speakers and folks from other linguistic backgrounds, including ESL courses and a Spanish-language research database.
As we’ve discussed above, bilingual story time events are a good opportunity for children from diverse linguistic backgrounds to practice their native language with people outside of their household. That’s why the Sno-Isle Library system in the state of Washington is planning on expanding its story time program to offer these events in Spanish, Russian, and Korean, among a handful of others. The library system recently received a $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundation, which it’s partly using to improve its outreach strategy. By working with speakers of different languages, the library system is hoping to make its resources and services more accessible to populations with LEP, allowing them to tap into the wealth of knowledge available through the library system.
Libraries hold great potential for promoting linguistic diversity and equity — from language courses, to multilingual story hours, to collecting multimedia in several different languages, libraries have the ability to empower individuals from all sorts of linguistic backgrounds. If you work for a library and would like to improve your multilingual programming, resources, and outreach to LEP communities, Avantpage is happy to help. We offer translation, localization, and interpreting services that can boost your multilingual, multicultural outreach efforts. Contact us today at info@avantpage.com or (530) 750-2040 for more information.

At Avantpage, we pride ourselves on being a highly data-driven company. And we understand that our clients want to be able to access the same technology and insights into language data that we use internally — that’s why we developed our signature customer portal, AvantPortal. AvantPortal is a comprehensive platform that offers a wide range of features tailored specifically to our customers’ needs. From seamless service requests to streamlined invoice management, file organization, and communication between the client and Avantpage, the portal’s multifaceted capabilities empower clients to navigate translation projects with finesse. We’ve designed and developed our customer portal with your priorities in mind, ensuring that clients are able to tap into a wealth of insightful language data and more. This data can help you work smarter and faster, allowing you to reduce costs and get even more value out of our language services. In AvantPortal, you have access to a customized dashboard that includes all sorts of useful information at a glance, including translation criteria, current and past projects, quotes, contact information  — just to name a few. If you want to really get into the weeds, you can monitor the status of your entire project workflow to know exactly where you are on project delivery status, KPIs like project frequency, number of requests, timeliness, and more. We worked with our account manager Eduardo Diaz to help you come up with ways to leverage language data and make the most out of your experience with AvantPortal. In this blog post, we’ll shed some light on how clients like you can harness this resource to enhance your operational efficiency and strategic decision-making. So without further ado, here are five key things that Eduardo says clients should know about AvantPortal and how to make the most out of the platform to leverage your language data. AvantPortal is a powerful tool for clients, providing you with key data on translation projects and an easy way to contact key folks in our organization. Here are some tips to get the most out of AvantPortal. AvantPortal provides you with all sorts of spending data that you can use to your advantage when working on future projects with us. By evaluating year-to-date expenditures, clients can assess whether they align with projections or if you’re over-/ under-spending. You can also break down that spending data by language, team, and service to see where things are running most efficiently and where things can be improved. We encourage you to work closely with your account manager to find ways to decrease spending or delegate funding to other kinds of projects. And of course, the portal also allows you to swiftly check payment status and identify any outstanding invoices. Rush translations can run up your bill quite a bit, as they’re typically more costly than translation projects with a longer deadline. Thanks to AvantPortal, you can see which teams and individuals are requesting rush translations frequently so that you can educate them on the importance of preparing ahead of time. Data on rush translations — from who’s requesting them to when they’re being requested most frequently — plays a significant role in refining your operational efficacy (and ours!). In addition to using this data as an educational tool, we can also look at peaks and dips in rush translation demand throughout the year to streamline workflows and anticipate workload fluctuations. Data on translation memory (TM) usage is a goldmine for cost optimization. AvantPortal succinctly reveals the distribution of brand-new terms, fuzzy matches, and 100% matches. These insights can provide you with tangible evidence of savings derived from TM usage. And much like with spending data and rush translation data, you can also use AvantPortal to break down TM usage by language and identify areas for improvement. This in turn will improve your cost efficiency and optimize your savings. Understanding historical trends in service requests is an important part of efficient project management. We urge clients to delve into the peaks and troughs of project volume across months and quarters. This analysis will help you identify patterns of increased demand so you can prepare accordingly. Segmentation by departments, project types, and service categories enhances the precision of this analysis, facilitating more targeted decisions. Your account manager is here to help — AvantPortal makes it easy to get connected with them and take advantage of their wealth of knowledge. The account manager-client partnership thrives when clients provide feedback on how they want to visualize data, driving customized solutions that align with the organization’s unique needs. Our seasoned team of account managers possesses insider insights into industry trends and best practices that can guide you in finding the language data you’re looking for. But they won’t just help you find it — they’ll also help you figure out the best way to actually use it. At Avantpage, we’re proud to have an in-house tool as powerful as AvantPortal. This platform proves to be indispensable for data-driven clients who need insights into the translation project management process.To recap, here are five ways you can use AvantPortal to take your projects to the next level: From cost reduction through spendings analysis to process refinement via rush translation and Translation Memory data, AvantPortal equips clients with the tools they need to make informed decisions. Want to learn more about how you can use AvantPortal to leverage language data? Contact us today at info@avantpage.com or (530) 750-2040.

If you’re trying to improve your company or agency’s relationship with local limited English proficient (LEP) populations, you may have been advised to partner up with a community-based organization — but what does that actually mean? Allow us to explain. As defined by the folks at Carleton University’s Community First initiative, community-based organizations, also referred to as CBOs, are “non-profit, non-governmental, or charitable organizations that represent community needs and work to help them. CBOs may be associated with a particular area of concern or segment of the community.” CBOs — examples include mutual aid groups, local LGBTQ centers, and legal funds, just to name a few — play a key role in addressing the unique needs of local communities. These organizations are usually staffed by members of the community or people who are intimately familiar with it, making them essential to creating sustainable change that centers the needs of the local community. If you’re looking to expand your outreach and build trust with local immigrant populations or people with limited English proficiency (LEP), partnering with CBOs is a good first step. Historically, immigrant communities and people with LEP may have developed low trust toward certain groups — for example, government agencies or healthcare providers — due to marginalization or mistreatment. Partnering with CBOs that advocate for the needs of immigrants can help your organization gain the trust of the populations you serve. By partnering with CBOs, you can learn more about the immigrant communities that your organization serves and get a better sense of how to best meet their needs. Building trust might not be easy at first, but over time, CBOs can help you develop a fruitful relationship with historically underserved communities. In this blog post, we’ll go over the how and why of partnering with CBOs, placing particular emphasis on their role in serving immigrant communities and people with LEP.
CBOs can be an extremely helpful resource when you need to gain a better understanding of your local community’s needs. If your organization works closely with immigrants and folks with LEP, partnering with a CBO can be the first step toward providing adequate, accessible services to the community. While working closely with a language service provider (LSP) is a good step toward providing language access, CBOs can better help you determine the unique needs of your locale. CBOs can help you with the things an LSP might not be able to — for example, finding and connecting with local communities, building trust and engaging with them, identifying micro-communities with unique needs, and more. LSPs, on the other hand, can help with language capabilities and processes, follow your unique privacy requirements, leverage data and technology tools to ensure high quality, accuracy, and speed of language service delivery. While LSPs are fairly approachable, many agencies and organizations are a bit unsure of how to go about partnering with CBOs to enhance their language access practices. Here, we’ve identified four key steps to developing a meaningful and mutually beneficial partnership with CBOs:
Partnering with community-based organizations is not just a transactional arrangement; it’s about building genuine relationships and co-creating solutions to address the specific needs of communities. By working together with CBOs, you can foster a sense of trust, inclusion, and belonging that leads to long-lasting, positive change for all parties involved. If you’re looking to learn more about how to combine the strengths of CBOs and translation services, Avantpage is happy to help — contact us today at info@avantpage.com or (530) 750-2040 to speak with one of our experts. 

Although it’s illegal for rental agencies and mortgage lenders to discriminate against individuals on the basis of their English proficiency, we would be remiss not to acknowledge a clear reality: Individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) tend to face greater housing instability than their English-speaking counterparts. This makes immigrant housing assistance absolutely critical to ensuring that individuals with LEP have a fair chance at securing housing and remaining housed. When it comes to home ownership, areas with high concentrations of LEP have been found to have a rate of home ownership that’s 5% lower than those with lower populations of individuals with LEP. Meanwhile, some rental agencies still refuse to rent to individuals with LEP — one in New York even caught the attention of the US Department of Justice after being accused of refusing to work with LEP individuals even after they offered to pay for their own interpreting services. Communities with LEP comprise a diverse group of people — immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced individuals, just to name a few. Among individuals with LEP, refugees and asylum seekers face unique challenges, as they often lack the resources to prepare for immigration or establish themselves in the country after leaving politically unstable regions. As refugees and asylum seekers arrive in the country, one of their most pressing needs is finding and securing housing accommodations. These individuals tend to be some of the most vulnerable to housing instability, as they may not be immediately ready to navigate the complex housing market upon arrival, especially if they don’t have a strong grasp of English or an established network within the country. Organizations like housing counseling agencies (HCAs) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provide immigrant housing assistance resources and services to equip these folks with the aid that they need. However, it’s crucial to provide these services alongside adequate language access services; otherwise, immigrants and refugees with LEP may not be able to take full advantage of housing assistance. In this blog post, we’ll explore the intersection of language access and immigrant housing assistance, highlighting the importance of equitable language access to support immigrant populations in their pursuit of suitable housing.
To effectively assist immigrant populations with their housing needs, it’s important that housing assistance — whether that’s emergency shelter needs or helping members of a family avoid eviction from their rental unit — be provided in a language that individuals can readily understand. There are a lot of key elements that go into making sure that individuals with LEP are able to find and access housing assistance services — here are just a few tips for housing organizations to enhance outreach and support for individuals with LEP: While it’s clearly important for agencies to provide services to individuals with LEP in a language they can understand, it’s equally important for said agencies to reach those individuals in the first place. After all, if individuals struggling with housing are not aware of or do not fully understand the available assistance, they may not be able to access the help they need. Because of this, it’s important that HCAs and other organizations providing housing assistance to immigrants make an effort to connect with individuals in their advertising and outreach materials — for example, translating (or even transcreating) informational pamphlets into languages that are in high demand within the local community, or directing social media and advertising campaigns toward non-English-speaking communities that are most in need. Partnering with CBOs that have established connections with immigrant communities can significantly improve language access in housing assistance. These organizations can provide valuable insight and cultural expertise to ensure effective communication and service delivery. Not only can they help you with your outreach plans, but they can also help give you an idea of the languages that are most in demand, and also provide consulting as you develop a language access plan. Although English is the most common language on the internet, it’s clear that people prefer accessing websites in their native language. Individuals with LEP will almost certainly be using the internet in a language other than English — so if your website is English-only, people in need may not easily find your website on search engines. That makes it absolutely essential for housing organization websites to localize their websites to cater to diverse linguistic communities. For tips on localization practices, visit our recent blog post on localization mistakes to avoid.  A robust language access plan is an absolute must-have for any organization providing immigrant housing assistance. A good language access plan will guide the ways in which your organization interacts with individuals who have LEP, including (but not limited to) the following actions:
These are just a few important considerations when establishing a language access plan — for more information on creating an effective language access plan, click here. Developing an online portal specifically designed for immigrant housing assistance, translated into multiple languages, can help streamline things for individuals with LEP. This portal can help connect clients with housing counselors who speak their preferred language and can also allow individuals to easily access translated vital documents. Individuals can also use the portal to schedule counseling sessions and communicate whether or not they’ll need an interpreter before their session begins, so the agency can be well-prepared ahead of time.
One’s level of English proficiency should never impact their ability to secure or remain in suitable housing. By recognizing the intersection of language access services and immigrant housing assistance, HCAs and other organizations providing housing assistance can serve their clients with LEP effectively and efficiently. Here are five tips to get you started: Avantpage is proud to help housing organizations provide effective and inclusive language services for some of the most vulnerable individuals. If your housing agency is looking to develop a language access plan or simply needs translation, localization, or interpreting services, we’re here to help — contact us today at info@avantpage.com or (530) 750-2040 to learn more about our services. 

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. Case Study: How Avantpage Completed Website Localization for Covid19.ca.gov in 7 languages with +10 million views
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. 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 today at info@avantpage.com or (530) 750-2040 for more information about our localization services.

Are you developing a language access plan? Here’s how you can get started with community and language assessments A language access plan is a must-have for many organizations: healthcare providers, public agencies, legal firms, the list goes on and on.  In recent years, lawmakers and the general public alike have grown increasingly aware about the importance of language access. The turn of the 21st century also marked an important turn in advocacy for language access: Executive Order 13166, signed in August 2000, required federal agencies to develop a plan to ensure that individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) could receive “meaningful access” to their services. Since then, language access bills and advocacy efforts have sprung up all across the nation. Take for instance the recently launched Office of Language Access in the state of New York, which is overseeing the enforcement of the state’s new language access policy. Meanwhile, a similar bill passed the New Jersey state senate in March 2023.  Given our nation’s status as one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world, it’s no surprise that language access has become an important part of our cultural dialogue. Of course, talking about language access isn’t enough — in order to take meaningful action toward progress, it’s important for agencies to take a thoughtful, principled approach to devising a language access plan. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to language access — as such, each organization will need to take different steps toward providing adequate language access services. And that’s where the language access plan comes in. By taking the time to research your community’s linguistic needs and examine your organization’s services, you can create an actionable language access plan. If you’re looking to build an effective and equitable language access plan, this blog post can serve as a launching point for you to begin creating that plan. Here, we’ll explore how to get started with developing a language access plan and highlight some of the essential steps you need to take.
One of the first steps toward creating a meaningful language access plan is identifying the languages that are particularly prevalent in your community. Pre-assessment research allows you to determine which languages have the most demand — that is, what languages are most frequently spoken among populations with LEP? You can begin conducting research by looking through data from the U.S. Census Bureau, such as the annual American Community Survey. Not only does this data allow you to identify widely spoken languages in your community, but it also allows you to identify which languages are most widely spoken among groups that tend to have low levels of English proficiency.  By doing this research, you’ll have a better understanding of the linguistic diversity of the community and the types of services that individuals with LEP need.
Once you’ve identified a set of languages that are in high demand, it’s important to critically analyze your organization’s services and pain points that individuals with LEP might face when attempting to access these services. While some of this work can be done internally, it’s important to seek out the perspective of the community you’re serving, to get an external point-of-view. One option for identifying community needs is to conduct this community research in-house, hosting surveys, focus groups, and doing other data analysis. Many federal and state programs offer funding for such community research, so a good first step is to look for grants that your organization is eligible for and apply for them. Another step is to work with community-based organizations or consulting firms. In many cases, seeking out help from these organizations may be a more straightforward approach to sussing out the community’s needs.  Community-based organizations are likely to be quite tuned in to the needs of your consumers, while consultative organizations that specialize in language access or diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) can provide particularly helpful guidance on developing effective plans. Additionally, language service providers can also provide valuable insights and support in developing a comprehensive language access plan.
In addition to getting to know your community, it’s also essential to consider how members of the community interact with your organization and use your services.  It’s a good first step to identify all of your organization’s vital documents. You’ll likely need to commission translations of these documents into the languages you identified in the previous steps, so having a running list of these documents is a good first step. Next, it’s important to think critically about how people in your community use your services. Moreover, ask your team how frequently do individuals with LEP interact with your agency or organization — government agencies in particular will also want to consider how many individuals with LEP are eligible for their services. In conjunction with the information gathered and analyzed in the previous steps, this step will allow you to prioritize certain aspects and goals in your language access plan. For example, an agency that frequently works face-to-face with LEP individuals will want to prioritize hiring bilingual staff and contracting interpreters, while organizations that do not have many walk-in clients might focus more on written communications first.
These three steps don’t make a language access plan all on their own — but they do provide you with a strong foundation for one. By researching the linguistic demographics of the community that you serve and analyzing your organization’s services, you’ll be well-prepared to begin developing a methodical and thoughtful language access plan. In short, here are some steps to conducting the research that underlies a successful language access plan: Building a language access plan can be a challenging process, but it’s essential for any organization that serves diverse communities. If you need help getting started with your language access plan, Avantpage is happy to help provide consulting, translation, and interpreting services to agencies and organizations across the country. Feel free to reach out to us at info@avantpage.com or (530) 750-2040 for more information about our services.

Avantpage Translations, a language service provider specializing in translation services for government, elections, and healthcare, recently announced the latest company expansion after experiencing a record year of growth. The company moves to having an in-house Spanish linguistic team. This change will be pivotal to improving overall client satisfaction through faster turnaround times, higher quality translations, and lowered costs.   2022 featured numerous core company achievements like ISO 9001 and 17100 certifications and a spot in the top 30 LSPs in North America. It became apparent that growth in services and increased in-house capacity would be crucial in continued success to ensuring our clients see improvements in our services. “By having an in-house group of proven and experienced Spanish [linguists], we will be able to deliver better, customized Spanish translations faster and at lower cost,” said CEO Luis Miguel.   Dominika Villafuerte-Woszczyk, Director of Operations and Quality, and long term Avantpage employee with 10 years of industry experience, expressed the potential impact of these changes. “Our internal dedicated Spanish team opens up a new door of opportunities for our clients. We are increasing our in-house linguists, so our processes will be more straightforward and effective,” explained Dominika. She went on to share that by having this dedicated, in-house team, there will also be more internal control of these projects, leading to higher quality services, faster turnaround times, and better opportunities for quality control in specialized areas like machine translation post-editing (MTPE) and remote interpreting.  “All of us at Avantpage are very excited to bring in-house the Spanish linguistic function. We expect that it will be transparent to our clients who will only see that our services keep improving in quality and speed while remaining price competitive.” Luis hinted that Avantpage will be a company to watch over the coming years due to many different investments for improved client satisfaction, such as the launch of Avantpage Life Sciences division in Europe, and enhancements to proprietary client tools like AvantPortal and AvantData with new technology to supplement the company’s remote interpreting. “We are excited about Avantpage’s future and will continue to bring to the market services designed to support immigrants in the USA and Life Sciences companies in Europe!”  About Avantpage Translations  For over 25 years, Avantpage has partnered with both public and private sector organizations to help their diverse and limited English proficient audiences gain more equitable access. We translate, interpret, and localize in more than 150 languages, and we believe in showing Empathy Beyond Words through the humanistic qualities of your audiences. Our goal at Avantpage is simple: to help our clients create a linguistic bridge that connects people, cultures, and communities through mutual understanding. For more information visit www.avantpage.com.