11 minutes

Your language-access plan

One page for one project or meeting: languages, decisions, money, calendar, limits, and what happens on the day when something was missed.

What you’ll be able to do

Write a one-page language-access plan for a project or meeting you are responsible for, naming the languages covered and how you decided, the budget line, the schedule point, the limits, and what happens when a need you did not plan for arrives.
Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What should the team change in the scope?
Draft a language-access plan for one project or meeting for your work, including project or meeting, and who it reaches, languages covered, and how you decided, interpretation: what, when, and who books it.

A plan that fits on one page

A language-access plan for a project or a meeting is not a policy document. It is a short, specific note that another person could pick up and act on. It says which languages are covered and how that was decided, who is booking what and by when, which documents are being translated and who reviews them, where the money is coming from, what is not covered, and what a staff member does on the day when the plan turns out to be incomplete. Eight lines is enough. Eight lines that name people and dates is better than eight pages that name neither.

Two of those lines do most of the work. The budget line is the plan: a project with interpretation priced into it will have interpretation, and one without it will have a conversation in week eleven about whether it is really necessary. The schedule line is the other half: translation needs a finished source and a review cycle, and interpreters are booked around a human being’s calendar, so both have to appear early enough to be real.

The last line matters more than it looks. No plan covers everything. Someone will arrive speaking a language nobody anticipated, or ask for a format that was not on the list. Deciding in advance what happens in that moment — which line to call, who has authority to spend, what the person is told, and what gets recorded so the next plan is better — is the difference between a gap and a failure. It is also where accountability and repair actually live: not in the apology, but in what changes afterwards and who is told.

A language-access plan for one project or meeting

One page you can copy into a project folder or a meeting invitation. Fill it in for something real that is already on your calendar.

Project or meeting, and who it reaches Public information sessions and the printed notice for a change in how a service is requested. Reaches current participants, families, and the community organizations that support them.

Languages covered, and how you decided English plus the languages identified with the responsible language-access office and confirmed with two partner organizations serving the affected households. American Sign Language and live captioning provided as a default at every session, not on request.

Interpretation: what, when, and who books it Two interpreters per spoken language per session; sign language interpreters placed at the front with sightlines checked. Booked by the project coordinator at least three weeks ahead. Preparation packet — agenda, slides, glossary, room layout — sent five working days ahead.

Translation: which documents, who translates, who reviews The notice, the request form and the rights-and-appeal page. Translated under the department’s translation arrangement, reviewed by a second qualified translator, then reviewed by two community reviewers who are paid for their time.

Budget line and schedule point Interpretation and translation carried as their own budget lines in the project scope, not inside the design line. English source finished six weeks before the effective date; translation and review complete two weeks before; everything published together.

Not covered, and the route to ask Languages outside the planned set, braille, and large print are arranged on request. Named contact, working phone and email, and a commitment to respond within a stated number of working days appear on every version of the notice, in every language.

If someone’s language was not planned for Staff on the day call the telephone interpreting line rather than asking a companion to interpret; nobody is turned away or asked to come back. The occurrence is written down, and the language is considered for the next round of materials.

Review point and who hears what changed Reviewed with the project team and the two partner organizations at the agreed point after the last session. What changed because of their input goes back to them in writing, along with what did not change and why.

Copy the eight lines into your own project folder or meeting invitation, fill them in for something real on your calendar, and send it to the people who have to act on it — including whoever controls the budget.

Browse and download only. Staff notes are not typed or saved on this page.

When does each decision have to be made?

Interpretation and translation carried as their own budget lines.

Which documents in this project count as vital.

Sentences kept short, terms defined, acronyms spelled out.

A shared list of program terms for translators and interpreters.

Two interpreters per language booked for a long session.

Sightlines, lighting and seating checked for signed interpretation.

Which languages are covered, decided with partner organizations.

The preparation packet sent to every interpreter.

The named contact and response commitment written into the notice.

First moves that need nobody’s permission

Put interpretation and translation on the budget worksheet as their own lines, even at zero, so somebody has to decide rather than forget.
Move the translation task out of the final week and attach the English source deadline to it.
Write the offer of interpretation into every version of a notice, in the language of that version.
Send a preparation packet to interpreters for every interpreted meeting, starting with the next one.
Put a named contact and a real response time on public materials instead of a general mailbox.
Ask one partner organization which document matters most, and arrange payment for the time before you ask.
Write down what happened when a plan fell short, so the next plan starts from it rather than from memory.

Put the line in the budget while the budget is still open

What you can change

You control whether language access appears as its own cost and its own schedule item, or as an unfunded task at the end. In most projects that is a decision one person makes quietly in week one.

What to watch for

Do not fold interpretation and translation into a design or printing line where they disappear. Do not write “as needed” in a budget; it means nothing was reserved.

Your next step

On the next project worksheet you touch, add the two lines with an actual figure, and name who is responsible for each. If the figure has to be argued for, argue for it in week one rather than in week eleven.

Which of these is a complete line in a language-access plan?

“Translation: materials will be translated as needed before launch.”

“Notice, request form and appeal page translated under the department’s arrangement, reviewed by a second qualified translator and by two paid community reviewers; English source final six weeks ahead; translation complete two weeks ahead; owner: project coordinator.”

“Language access: interpreters available on request; contact the program mailbox.”

Try a situation

A Disability Services Division project team is scoping a set of public-facing materials and a series of information sessions around a program change. The draft budget has lines for design, printing and venue costs. There is no line for interpretation or translation. The draft schedule ends with a single task in the final week, labeled “translate.”

What should the team change in the scope?

Keep the structure and move the translation task two weeks earlier so there is room if it slips.

Put language access into the scope, the budget and the schedule at the same time as design: name the languages and how that was decided, price interpretation and translation as their own budget lines, write the English source to be translated, build in translator review and paid community review, and set session dates with interpreter availability in mind.

Publish and run everything in English first, then add translated materials and interpretation later if demand appears.

Carry this forward

A plan that fits on one page and names people and dates is worth more than a policy nobody opens. Eight lines someone else could act on is the target.
Money and calendar are the plan. Interpretation and translation fail most often because they were priced last and scheduled last, not because anyone objected to them.
Name what you are not covering and why, with a route to ask. An honest limit with a real contact is better than an implied promise the project cannot keep.
Repair belongs in the plan before it is needed: what a staff member actually does when a person arrives speaking a language nobody planned for, in the next ten minutes and in the following week.
Write down whose knowledge shaped the plan and what changed because of it. A plan that no affected person saw is a draft.

A scenario about a project scope with no line for language access, a sorting exercise about when each decision has to be made, and a completed one-page plan for a real project or meeting.

Fill in the plan for the next real project or meeting on your calendar, send it to the people who have to act on it, put the review point in the calendar now, and tell the partners who helped shape it what you decided.

Your next step

Pick the next project or meeting you are responsible for. What would it take to have the plan written before the scope is locked?

Name the project and the person who controls its budget

Name the one decision that has to happen at scoping rather than at drafting

Name the partner or colleague whose knowledge should shape the languages you cover, and how their time will be paid for

Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.

Mark this lesson complete

Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.