New York State Office of Language Access
Annual Report 2023-2024
In April 2022, Governor Hochul codified New York’s statewide language access policy as part of the FY 2023 Enacted Budget. This law took effect on July 1, 2022. Under the language access law, all New York State agencies that provide services or benefits directly to the public must provide interpretation services in any language to a person that needs to access the agency’s services. Covered agencies must also translate vital agency documents into the 12 languages most commonly spoken by New Yorkers with limited English proficiency (LEP), according to the most recent data from the United States Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Governor Hochul established the New York State Office of Language Access (OLA), within the New York State Office of General Services (OGS), in October 2022. OLA ensures the efficient and effective implementation of the language access law by providing critical oversight and coordination across State agencies.
This report, created in collaboration with the OGS Data Analytics Office and the OGS Digital and Media Services Center, is prepared and published in accordance with Executive Law Section 202-a. It reflects language access services provided during the State fiscal year beginning on April 1, 2023 and ending on March 31, 2024. For comparisons to last year’s report, which covered a six-month period, OLA presumed the activity for six months was typical of the full fiscal year and doubled the numbers to calculate annual estimates. The data in this report was gathered from 47 State agencies, including two new agencies that have chosen to voluntarily comply with the language access law during the reporting period: the Division of Tax Appeals and the Office of General Services. All data presented in this report is self-reported by each participating agency.
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
From April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024:
- Two new State agencies opted to voluntarily comply with the language access law: the Division of Tax Appeals and the Office of General Services.
- State agencies provided language interpretation services in more than 130 languages in 515,737 individual encounters, an 18 percent decrease from last year’s report.
- Over 13,000 people with LEP were assisted in group encounters, an increase of 53 percent compared to last year’s report.
- Most encounters with people with LEP occurred through telephonic interpretation and in-person consecutive interpretation, which is consistent with last year’s report.
- Spanish continues to be the most common language requested for translation and interpretation, which is consistent with last year’s report. Spanish is the preferred language spoken by the largest population with LEP in New York State.
- Agencies translated over 48,000 documents, an increase of 25 percent from last year’s report. Documents were translated into 79 languages, an increase of 25 languages compared to last year’s report.
- Agencies printed and distributed nearly 19 million translated documents into 77 languages, an increase of 22 percent from last year’s report, with 24 more languages than last year.
- Nearly 80,000 agency staff members completed the annual statewide Language Access for Frontline Staff training administered by the Office of Employee Relations, a 30 percent decrease over last year.
- OLA successfully assisted agencies in addressing all 42 public complaints related to language access this year.
- Agencies spent over $10 million on language access services, 4 percent less than last year’s reported cost, despite an increase in document translation.
Seven agencies added languages to their list for translation of vital documents. These languages are in addition to those required by the language access law.
Those agencies are:- Department of Health
- Department of Labor
- Department of Motor Vehicles
- Department of Taxation and Finance
- Division of Human Rights
- Office of the Medicaid Inspector General
- Office of Mental Health
Additional languages include:- Albanian
- Burmese
- Greek
- Hindi
- Japanese
- Nepali
- Pashto
- Portuguese
- Tagalog
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
- Yoruba
Overall, these conclusions reflect New York State’s continued commitment to providing equitable access to services for everyone, regardless of their preferred language or English language skills. OLA continues to collaborate with State entities to monitor, expand, and improve language access services across the state.