Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency

August 12 marks the 24^th anniversary of Executive Order 13166, "Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency." At its core, the order acknowledges a fundamental principle: The federal government must be able to understand and communicate with all people in the United States, including those with limited English proficiency (LEP), to keep our country and communities safe and prosperous.

For over 2 decades, we have partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice and interested third parties to remove language barriers to federal and federally programs and services.

Misunderstandings can lead to unfortunate, sometimes tragic, consequences.

Communicating with and understanding people with limited English proficiency is critical to carrying out the federal government's many missions. Ours is to provide financial protection to the nation's people. When government agencies like ours translate documents or offer free interpreter services, we improve the effectiveness of our programs and services for people who communicate primarily in languages other than English.

At Social Security, we are committed to making sure our programs - and the programs we fund - are open to all people, regardless of their English proficiency. Along with more than 40 other federal agencies, we have revised (or are revising) our language access plans. In December 2023, we released our revised plan, which describes our language access policy, strategy, and program.

We have made it a priority to implement effective policies and procedures to eliminate language barriers. For example:

• In response to advocate concerns, we:
• • Launched a social media campaign to promote the online Multilanguage Gateway with information in 17 languages.
  • Relocated the gateway link to a more prominent location on our homepage for greater visibility and access.
  • Began a review of our multilanguage publications and online resources.
• To increase transparency, we released data from our Open Government webpage, including:
  • Annual telephone interpreter services call counts.
  • Annual spoken language preferences of benefit applicants.
• Internally, we launched the LEP Communications Hub for employees that has LEP-related products, resources, training, policy, and outreach materials.

In the coming year, we will continue to work with our partners on the Federal Language Access Working Group (FedLAWG) led by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. As a member of the FedLAWG, we share best practices about training employees, recruiting multilingual staff, contracting for translators and interpreters, and using technology to deliver language assistance.

Please visit our Equity page to learn about the progress we have made since the release of our first Equity Action Plan in 2022. You can download the Equity Action Plan 2023 Update to read about how we continue to prioritize efforts to make sure language does not pose barriers when people apply for benefits and access our services.

Tags:equity, Federal Agencies, General Information