A new D.C. law directs city agencies to produce their documents in a variety of languages for about 38,000 residents who do not speak or read English well.
Under the Language Access Act, city agencies must provide translation services in languages spoken by at least 500 residents or by at least 3 percent of persons a given agency serves or is likely to serve, whichever is less. Translation services will not be provided for smaller groups of residents.
City officials estimate that the translation services will cost $440,000 a year.
“I think all these issues, language access, voting access, that I support, all these things are important in recognizing that immigration is the glory of our country, and it’s added to the vitality and the diversity of our city,” said Mayor Anthony A. Williams, who signed the act into law Wednesday.
But Jim Boulet Jr., executive director of the Springfield-based nonprofit English First, said language-access laws provide no incentive for immigrants to learn the language of their new homeland and encourage them to use the language they are most comfortable with.
“When the government says, ’Here’s a translation,’ what are people who speak both languages going to do?” he said. “What happens is, governments give people a false sense of security.”
The new law calls for the hiring of three full-time workers in the D.C. Office of Human Rights, which will coordinate the program. In addition, a part-time language coordinator will be assigned at each of the city’s agencies. A portion of each coordinator’s salary was figured in to cost estimates.
Moreover, interpreters will be provided for speakers of all languages, whether that means hiring bilingual staff members, contracting private or telephone interpreter programs or using publicly funded interpreters in community-service programs.
Neither the Office of Human Rights, nor D.C. Council member Jim Graham, Ward 1 Democrat and sponsor of the language-access bill, returned calls seeking information about the number of languages for which translation services will be provided.
According to data from the D.C. public school system, more than 113 different languages are spoken by city residents.
The 2000 U.S. census showed that 90,417 — or 16.8 percent — of the District’s 539,658 residents speak a language other than English at home. Of those, 38,236 — or 7.1 percent — indicated they speak English less than “very well.”
Mr. Boulet said that when language-access laws do not provide translation services to speakers of more obscure languages, as the District’s law does not, they belie their purpose, since those persons are likely to be more isolated and more in need of public services.
He also said language-access laws also open jurisdictions to liability lawsuits stemming from inaccurate translations.
“The more important a benefit or a service, the more exacting a translation,” he said. “There is going to be litigation.”
Implementation of the law will be staggered over 31/2 years. In addition to staff salaries, additional costs will include $60,000 in written translation services, estimated at $60 per page, for an estimated 1,000 pages of government documents each year above what agencies already produce in different languages.
Implementing the law will cost $140,000 for the remainder of this year, according to a fiscal-impact statement prepared in February by the D.C. Office of the Chief Financial Officer. The cost will rise to $300,000 next year, $370,000 in 2006 and $440,000 in 2007, when all agencies must provide translation services.
Each agency with a language coordinator also will be required to collect updated information on the number of limited-English-speaking persons it serves.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.