News and Analysis

Local government agencies are struggling to meet increased demand for legal and public health information in languages other than English, particularly in more remote, rural areas. This is despite growing diversity in these areas and Spanish being spoken in nearly 15% of households. Civil rights analysts argue that without adequate language access, public safety can be jeopardised due to miscommunications or lack of information. Some states have addressed this through laws and language-access plans, but these solutions are patchy and can exclude smaller counties.