Picture






Federal Coordination and Compliance Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice 

Ensuring consistent and effective Title VI enforcement across the federal government 

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

 Today marks the 15th anniversary of Executive Order 13166, “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency,” requiring federal programs and activities to provide meaningful access to limited English proficient (LEP) individuals.  In honor of this anniversary, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (Division), is releasing several mapping resources that help identify the concentration of LEP populations at national, state, judicial district, and county levels: 

  • The Division’s first mapping application, “Language Map App,” allows users to view and download data from an interactive map. The interactive maps provide data on the languages spoken by LEP populations at the State and County level for all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
  • Printable maps, located at lep.gov/maps, provide both the number and percentage of LEP individuals in each region. County and judicial district maps provide the top five languages spoken by LEP individuals within those areas in the form of detailed pie charts. 
  • Finally, we have also collected other federal language mapping tools at lep.gov/maps.
 Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires, in part, that recipients of federal funds provide meaningful language access to their programs and activities.  The Executive Order extends those language access principles to federal agencies.  As a result, state, local, and federal agencies are often in need of data to inform efforts to provide translated material to LEP families or to ensure that they have interpreters available.  But, data can be hard to find, tabulate, and visualize.  With these new maps, the Civil Rights Division aims to provide easily-accessible visual representations of the concentration of and languages spoken by LEP individuals in our communities. 

The usefulness of these maps is evident throughout our work.  A single map can help provide technical assistance, inform investigation plans, and improve targeted outreach efforts.  For example: 

  • A federal agency could use county-level maps to identify target languages spoken by LEP communities when translating notices or hiring interpreters for an outreach event.
  • While conducting a state-wide investigation, a federal civil rights office could use our map to determine which counties are most likely to contain LEP complainants.
  • After reviewing county-level maps, a local benefits office could decide to translate forms and install notices regarding the availability of language assistance services after realizing that their county contains a large community of potential LEP beneficiaries.
  • With improved understanding of the languages spoken by LEP individuals in its district, a U.S. Attorney’s office could enhance efforts to reach potential LEP victims and witnesses in a case by translating press releases into the district’s top five languages.
  • A county transit agency, realizing that a neighboring county transit agency has a similar LEP population, could work with the neighboring county to share translated transit resources and plans to provide meaningful access to LEP commuters.
 As a reminder, the Division’s Federal Coordination and Compliance Section  also produces TIPS (translation, interpretation, and procurement series) training tools for federal agencies.  The tools include tips on hiring language service providers, vetting linguists, using telephone interpreters, and choosing appropriate services for a given task.  The TIPS align with the mission of Executive Order 13166 by guiding agencies in the process of acquiring the high-quality language services required to provide meaningful access to federal programs and services.

 Finally, we encourage you to review the Interagency Video Training Series on Communicating Effectively with Limited English Proficient Members of the Public.  As many of you know, the Federal Coordination and Compliance Section partnered with several other agencies and federal partners—including the Social Security Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service—to create an exciting new video training series for federal employees regarding language access. The training series includes several scenarios inspired by both emergency and routine events that federal government staff has faced over the years.   While designed for federal employees, the training series is also useful for organizations interested in training staff on how to determine whether a person is LEP, identifying an LEP person’s primary language, and reviewing reliable language assistance options. 

 

 We look forward to hearing how your agency or organization will use our resources to provide meaningful access to LEP individuals and communities.  Join us, in taking further strides to open our programs and services to all individuals, regardless of their ability to speak English fluently.

 

Deeana Jang
Chief
Federal Coordination and Compliance Section
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice

 

For more information and additional resources on the Executive Order, visit www.LEP.gov, or the Federal Coordination and Compliance Section’s Executive Order 13166 webpage, at www.justice.gov/crt/about/cor/13166.php.