Anyone receiving federal support, even indirectly, is required to provide language access. Moreover, Title VI applies to a recipient’s entire program or activity. This means all parts of a recipient’s is only partially funded through federal funds, Language access requirements are therefore relevant to a wide variety of programs, organizations and agencies.

Yes, if you provide information/services in English, you need to be sure that LEP individuals also have meaningful access to oral information/services. This is commonly done by using interpretation or by hiring multilingual employees.

Recipients of federal funding must take “reasonable steps” to ensure that LEP individuals have “meaningful access” to their activities and programs and activities. An agency provides meaningful access to its program when the language assistance provided is accurate, timely effective and it’s a no cost to the LEP individual. Each agency’s approach to overcoming language barriers will differ based on the population they serve, the type of service and the resources they have access to.

DOJ has developed a self assessment and planning tool to help agencies determine how to provide meaningful access to LEPs. This approach takes into account an agency’s mission, the population served from both a linguistic and cultural context, the establishing language access policies and plans.