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Title VI of the Civil Rights Act: Arranging for Interpreters
Arranging for Interpreters and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Excerpted from the Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 169 / August 30, 2000 pgs 52765 and 52766
Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964;
Policy Guidance on the Prohibition
Against National Origin Discrimination
As it Affects Persons with Limited
English Proficiency
...Title VI prohibits discrimination in any program or activity that receives Federal financial assistance. In order to ensure compliance with Title VI, recipient/covered entities must take steps to ensure that limited English proficient (LEP) persons who are eligible for their programs or services have meaningful access to the health and social service benefits that they provide. The most important step in meeting this obligation is for recipients of Federal financial assistance to provide the language assistance necessary to ensure such access, at no cost to the LEP person.
There is no "one size fits all" solution for Title VI compliance with respect to LEP persons. OCR will make its assessment of the language assistance needed to ensure meaningful access on a case by case basis, and a recipient/covered entity will have considerable flexibility in determining precisely how to fulfill this obligation. OCR will focus on the end result - whether the recipient/covered entity has taken the necessary steps to ensure that LEP persons have meaningful access to its programs and services.
The steps taken by a covered entity must ensure that the LEP person is given adequate information, is able to, through competent interpretation and translation of key documents, understand the services and benefits available, and is able to receive those for which he or she is eligible. The covered entity must also ensure that the LEP person can effectively communicate the relevant circumstances of his or her situation to the service provider.
Oral Language Interpretation
In designing an effective language assistance program, a recipient/covered entity develops procedures for obtaining and providing trained and competent interpreters and other oral language assistance services, in a timely manner, by taking some or all of the following steps:
- Hiring bilingual staff who are trained and competent in the skill of interpreting;
- Hiring staff interpreters who are trained and competent in the skill of interpreting;
- Contracting with an outside interpreter service for trained and competent interpreters;
- Arranging formally for the services of voluntary community interpreters who are trained and competent in the skill of interpreting;
- Arranging/contracting for the use of a telephone language interpreter services.
Summary:
The key to ensuring meaningful access for LEP persons is effective communication. An agency or provider can ensure effective communication by developing and implementing a comprehensive written language assistance program that includes policies and procedures for identifying and assessing the language needs of its LEP applicants/clients, and that provides for a range of oral language assistance options, notice to LEP persons of the right to language assistance, periodic training of staff, monitoring of the program and, in certain circumstances, the translation of written materials.
If you would like a full copy of the Federal Register notice, go to http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/lep/guide.html or contact the Blue Ridge AHEC at 540-568-3011.
