Office of Language Access
Annual Report 2022-23
The New York State Office of Language Access (OLA), housed within the Office of General Services, was established by Governor Hochul in October 2022 to provide critical oversight and coordination across New York State agencies to ensure that the statewide language access is implemented efficiently and effectively.
The OLA Annual Report is prepared and published in accordance with Executive Law Section 202-a. The data in this first report was gathered from 45 State agencies and reflects language access services provided between October 1, 2022 (when OLA was launched) through March 31, 2023 (the end of the most recent fiscal year). All data in this report is self-reported by agencies. All subsequent reports will reflect data gathered over a full year period and will be fiscal year based (from April 1 to March 31).
A summary of conclusions is included below. To view the full report, download the PDF at the end of this section. For any questions about this report, contact OLA at [email protected].
Summary
- Agencies provided language interpretation services in more than 100 languages and across 312,561 individual encounters.
- The majority of encounters for people with LEP occurred through telephonic interpretation and bilingual parenthetic staff.
- Spanish was the most common language for which translation and interpretation were requested.
- Over 7 million documents were translated, printed, and distributed by agencies into 53 languages.
- Over 57,000 State agency staff members completed the language access training administered by OER.
- All complaints that included complainant contact information (23) were successfully addressed.
- Agencies spent over $5.3 million on language access services.
These numbers reflect agencies’ commitment to providing equitable access to services for everyone, regardless of their language skills. The Office of Language Access is continuing to collaborate with agencies to monitor, expand, and improve language access services across New York State.