Welcome to the D.C. Language Access Coalition website!

The D.C. Language Access Coalition’s director Jennifer Deng-Pickett was invited to meet with Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez to discuss LEP Issues. The meeting took place on December 15, 2009 and consisted of 15 other individuals from around the country.

Sarah Santana, an active student in the Coalition’s SMART program, was selected to join Michelle Rhee’s High School Cabinet on Monday. The Cabinet is made up of 20 to 25 high school students, usually one from each school. The purpose of the cabinet is to compile a list of problems that students feel need to be addressed in their schools and present it to Michelle Rhee when they meet for their monthly meetings. Sarah is a limited-English Proficient (LEP) student from Roosevelt high school and is a leader in the SMART program. She has been active with the Coalition since last year.

The D.C. Language Access Coalition released preliminary findings from a study that it conducted on limited and non-English proficient community members' access to primary health care services in the District of Columbia. The research, conducted on funding received by the Consumer Health Foundation, highlights some of the language barriers that inhibit LEP/NEP community members access to health care in hospitals and clinics in the District.

The governing board of the Office of Police Complaints (OPC), also known as The Police Complaints Board (PCB), released a report on July 16th 2009 giving Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Cathy L. Lanier a set of recommendations on why and how MPD needs to serve more efficiently the Limited English Proficient (LEP) population of the D.C. area.

Juan Estenos is an immigrant from Peru. A highly qualified accountant in Peru, he was unable to find employment in this field in the USA. As is the case for many immigrants, the need for survival prompted him to apply for employment for the position of office clerk at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization’s (WHO) Federal Credit Union. In January of 2000 he was invited to an interview with PAHO’s CEO, Operations and Finance Managers.

After the deadly train crash in the District of Columbia on June 22, 2009, language access advocates began to wonder how LEP individuals, given the language barriers, were being serviced by Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA). In 2007, when John Catoe (General Manager, WMATA) came into office, WMATA adopted a language access plan and charged Deborah Coram with the implementation of it.

On July 17th 2009 the D.C. Language Access Coalition had their first summer event of 2009 ‘Meet the Filmmaker’. This event featured Childhood in Translation, a documentary done by filmmaker Robert Winn and provided the attendees an opportunity to meet him. The event was a great success, bringing together community members, language access advocates and supporters for

On July 20th 2009 South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center (APALRC) released a detailed report of the South Asian Community Empowerment Project (SACE). In early 2009 SAALT and APALRC together got on board the SACE project with the support of OAPIA.

In March of 2009 the Coalition prepared around 35 presenters to give one-hour long trainings to the students of Carlos Rosario. During the week of April 20-25 these trainers went to every classroom in the school educating the adult ESL students on their legal rights and benefits per the Language Access Act. The Coalition was able to provide trainings in Spanish and French, and interpretation services were available for speakers of other languages. The Coalition was successfully able to train over 1200 adults.

The Washington Lawyer, a publication of D.C. Bar, featured a multiple page article on language access in D.C. Several members of the D.C. Language Access Coalition were featured in the article. Click Here to read the article.