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Government Gains with the State of Massachusetts
In our Government Gains series, we’re talking to dedicated public servants to learn three things about a recent project they’ve worked on that shows what’s possible when people ideate, collaborate, and innovate within government.
For this installment, we spoke with Yarlennys Villaman, a Language Access Coordinator and the Senior Director of Community Affairs with the Massachusetts Governor’s Office, and Marisa De la Paz, a Director of Multilingual Services for the Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Last year, on the recommendation of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Latino Empowerment, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed an executive order to reduce language access barriers to government services. Since then, agencies across the state have been working to increase language access and make the delivery of their services and resources more equitable. Coordinating all these disparate agencies has been a big job, so we spoke with the team about what’s making this project challenging—and rewarding.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’re facing in this project?
Yarlennys: Last year, Governor Maura Healey signed an executive order directing state agencies to create and follow a language access plan, which assesses their services for residents with limited English proficiency and develops action plans to reduce language barriers. In Massachusetts, one in four residents speak a language other than English at home. With this statistic, it’s clear that for access to information to be impactful, it has to be available in multiple languages that the residents of Massachusetts prefer. A challenge we experienced in the first year was the lack of templates available for language access coordinators to follow. This meant that we had to create a lot of processes from scratch, and state agencies needed more guidance to implement this policy successfully. That was a challenge that we were happy to face because we know how crucial this policy is for our residents’ well-being and success.
Marisa: Language access has its challenges. It requires significant commitment and investment of resources, including trained interpreters and translators, language-specific materials, and linguistically and culturally competent staff. It’s also not just about translating words but translating formatting, too. For example, some languages format dates differently, and it’s so important to keep an open mind. This can be perceived as a small challenge, but, in reality, it is life-changing for many residents who only know that particular formatting. This example is part of the access, and it has been challenging but possible to implement solutions, like spelling out the date instead of only using numbers.
Language access has its challenges. It requires significant commitment and investment of resources, including trained interpreters and translators, language-specific materials, and linguistically and culturally competent staff.
How did you approach this challenge and how did you decide which tools to use to solve it?
Yarlennys: The challenge was the existing gap in language access at the agency level. That’s why while leading the group of language access coordinators, I realized that centralized resources and templates were key to approaching this challenge and ensuring every agency and coordinator had the same information. For this reason, all the language access plans submitted by the agencies included step-by-step information on what vendor to use from our state-approved list of vendors for translations and interpretation services, as well on how to request American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation or Communication Access Realtime Translation (for assistive listening devices) through state vendors. We also implemented a survey to assess the implementation and success, and give an opportunity to discuss new ideas for the upcoming years. The result of the survey helped us learn different ways we could get closer to making resources more accessible and equitable to communities across the state.
Marisa: During my time implementing my agency’s language access plan, a challenge that turned into an opportunity was the creation of the first of its kind, multilingual portal for the Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML) providing optimum user experience. The Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) portal was translated into the state’s seven most spoken languages, determined by using an online localization system. The language experts on my team not only translated the portal but also worked on trans-creating the information to reach families in need of this service on a more personal level. This effort was done with the commitment to develop vital information to the culturally diverse communities in Massachusetts.
Where will the lessons you learned here be applied in the future?
Yarlennys: Two words come to mind when I think about the lessons I learned working on this program: support and teamwork. While leading this effort across each agency and secretariat, I realized that the newly established language coordinators needed support to achieve our administration’s desired quality and success. This is why I developed standardized guides and templates for each agency, which are so different from each other, for them to write their unique language plans. Teamwork comes to mind because I’ve seen how powerful it is to sit down with a group of people working towards the same goal. For this reason, I integrated a language access working group through which we are preparing to create a standardized presentation to train all state employees and teach them about what vendors they should use for ASL, interpretation, and translating, including a language line, which allows the service provider to access an interpreter by phone to communicate with people who speak a language other than English.
Marisa: When organizations translate materials, I strongly believe that quality should always prevail. Documents should not only be translated into the target language but also into plain language that is linguistically correct. Our team of language experts strives to provide a complete, accurate, and faithful translation while maintaining the tone and the style of the source writer. This is not something that machine translation can do. By following these guidelines Massachusetts will continue to be a leader in language access services.