Designing for Inclusivity: How Public Sector Organizations are Using AI to Increase Language Access in Their Communities

In my work, I work with a lot of state and local government entities on language access compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the other opportunity I have in my work is I work with federal agencies. And so in doing that work in the language access space, we often talk about what is the front door now. People don't walk into offices looking for paper materials. They are looking for that digital storefront where that content is. So we have a lot of conversations about what does that look like? How open is that? How accessible is that for persons that do not read or communicate in other language? So that comes up in my enforcement work when we're working with an entity that comes up with just helping other agencies assess what they're doing. But it also comes in from having conversations with entities like, you know, the City of New York, and I have a lot of conversations about, you know, what works, what doesn't. And in that conversation, you know, oftentimes I'm talking to linguists, either interpreters or translators, about what's out there, what works. I don't think if you don't have a sense of what's out there and what people are using, I think it's really hard to come up with solutions for public entities. Great, thank you. And I think you partially answered a bit of the first questions. Let me hit you with the first question. Communities are becoming increasingly multicultural and multilingual. To what extent is that being acknowledged and addressed, A, at the federal level and B, at the state and local level? So let's take the federal level first. You know, give us a reading of the temperature. Sure. At the federal level, I mean, it started a long time ago. Back in 2000, there was an executive order that told all federal agencies, you need to look at what you're providing, the information you're providing, how you work with communities who communicate in other languages. And at that same time, it told those agencies, you need to indicate to programs that you provide federal financial assistance to, how they need to do it as well. So it started a long time ago. On the digital side, the first thing I think of is Office for Management budgeted this memorandum in 2016, specifically on websites. And that was one of the first times I saw where in the executive, you know, Office of Management budget is kind of in the executive office of the president. It said, hey, you need to make sure you're providing the meaningful access that the executive order from 2000 required. Recently, and this is probably more relevant for a lot of people that know this space, the attorney general, who's the head of the Department of Justice, issued a memorandum last November to all the federal agencies that said, hey, you need to make sure you're providing the meaningful access that the executive order from 2000 required.