Meaningful Web Access for LEP Clients Examples from the Net

August 13, 2009

Co-Authors:  Liz Keith, Leah Margulies[1]

Introduction

Translating vital documents and information on your website is essential to ensuring limited English proficient (LEP) clients have access to our legal system.[2]  This article discusses the obligation to translate website content and highlights emerging and distinctive ways that programs are using web technology to help ensure essential resources and information are accessible to LEP clients.

Executive Order 13166 and the Department of Justice LEP Guidance explain how Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires recipients of federal funding to ensure LEP individuals have meaningful access to legal services by providing appropriate language assistance services.[3]  This obligation requires programs to translate vital documents and information on their website into the language of each frequently  encountered LEP group eligible to be served.[4]  While an entire website may not need to be translated, vital information and documents within the website may need to be translated.[5]   Vital documents and information include intake forms, notices of client’s rights, documents advising LEP clients of free language assistance, contact information, and eligibility applications, among others.[6]

Spotlight on LawHelp.org/NY

For the LawHelp.org/NY project, multilingual content and additional supports for LEP users is essential.  Over 130 languages are spoken by residents of New York State. While LEP individuals are only 13% of the general population, they account for 42% of New Yorkers who live below the poverty level. To meet their needs, LawHelp/NY has information in 35 languages and a mirror site in Spanish. In addition to an aggressive effort to identify multilingual Know Your Rights content for inclusion, LawHelp/NY uses multilingual pro bono attorneys and law school volunteers for translations and has improved multilingual navigation capabilities. While much has been done, there is more to do to ensure LEP users have meaningful access.

LawHelp/NY is especially excited about a new language access project in development. It has received funding from the LSC Technology Initiative Grant program to integrate LiveHelp on the LawHelp/NY site.  LiveHelp provides real-time chat and browsing assistance for visitors who need help finding appropriate resources and referral information. Most importantly LawHelp/NY will pilot the provision of LiveHelp assistance for LEP users. One unique aspect of the program will be the recruitment of multilingual pro bono participation in the LiveHelp project. LawHelp.org/NY has already lined up volunteer navigators in Spanish, Chinese, and Korean, three of the six languages identified in New York City's first Language Access Executive Order enacted in July 2008.  Volunteers will need to engage in a minimum of 5 hours of training and commit to familiarizing themselves with the site’s referral and legal information, as well as regularly scheduled LiveHelp shifts. LawHelp/NY is also engaged in a plan to provide a range of new resources explaining to multilingual users their language access rights in a range of legal settings such as fair hearings or at family or housing court.

Additional Language Access Strategies

Legal aid communities in several other states have made great strides in ensuring that web content is accessible to the LEP communities they serve. Illinois Legal Aid Online, hosts of the illinoislegalaid.org statewide website, has translated more than 175 documents into Spanish in seventeen substantive areas.  The site also offers Spanish language self-help videos, including a series on mortgage foreclosure issues.  The Minnesota Legal Services Coalition provides a fully-translated mirror version of LawHelpMN.org in Spanish, LawHelpMN.org/español.  The website is a plain-language legal library for Minnesota's largest language minority, complete with fact sheets and contact information for legal services providers throughout the state. Minnesota is also in the process of developing a Somali language sub-site to provide centralized access to Somali resources without the need for an English interpreter.  A Somali-language housing rights video has already been released. MLSC's LEP survey found that Somali speakers are more frequent Internet users than most language minorities. Idaho Legal Aid Services, in conjunction with the Idaho Courts, is the one of the first states to develop Spanish language Interactive Court Forms. Twenty-three forms in five Interactive Court Form packets have been developed thus far, and are made available through IdahoLegalAid.org.

Taking a Holistic, Interactive Approach

When developing online resources for LEP communities, it is important to establish editorial relationships and processes that ensure high quality, culturally appropriate translations.  Programs are discouraged from using web-based translation services as such services have been found to be unacceptably inaccurate.  Starting with documents written in plain English can help keep translation costs down.  Most importantly, online resources and technology-enabled strategies should not exist in isolation.  They will most benefit LEP clients when interwoven with a broader language access and service delivery strategy, with involvement from a range of community partners.  As with other service delivery strategies, understanding your target community’s needs will help your program implement effective and appropriate technology-supported solutions for LEP users.

An incremental approach, incorporating feedback and outreach, is the best way to make sure that translated content is useful and used.

Additional Resources

Department of Justice Overview of Executive Order 13166 http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/lep/13166/eo13166.html 

Legal Services Corporation, Guidance to LSC Programs for Serving Client Eligible Individuals with Limited English Proficiency, available at http://www.lsc.gov/program/pl/pl2004-2LEPGuidance.pdf

National Language Access Advocates Network (N-LAAN) http://www.probono.net/nlaan/

The Language Access Resource Center (LARC) at the Empire Justice Center http://onlineresources.wnylc.net/pb/orcdocs/language_access.asp

LSC Resource Information http://www.lri.lsc.gov/

LiveHelp Program Overview http://www.probono.net/link.cfm?11569

Footnote

1  Liz Keith is the LawHelp.org Program Manager at Pro Bono Net, Leah Margulies is the LawHelp.org/NY Project Director, Michael Mulé is a Staff Attorney at the Empire Justice Center.
2  U.S. Dept. of Justice, Commonly Asked Questions and Answers Regarding Executive Order 13166, Question 10, available at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/cor/Pubs/lepqa.php.
3  See Exec. Order No. 13166, 65 Fed Reg. 50,121 (Aug. 11, 2000);  pg. 3, Legal Services Corporation, Guidance to LSC Programs for Serving Client Eligible Individuals with Limited English Proficiency, available at http://www.lsc.gov/program/pl/pl2004-2LEPGuidance.pdf (citing U.S. Dept. of Justice, Guidance to Federal Financial Assistance Recipients Regarding Title VI Prohibition Against National Origin Discrimination Affecting Limited English Proficient Persons, 67 Fed. Reg. 41,455, 41,463 (June 18, 2002) (2002 DOJ Guidance).
4  U.S. Dept. of Justice, Commonly Asked Questions and Answers Regarding Executive Order 13166, Question 10.
5  Id.
6  See 2002 DOJ Guidance at 41,463.
7  See www.LawHelp.org/NY