SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTATION AND LANGUAGE ACCESS RIGHTS Tanya Douglas Attorney Director, Disability Advocacy and Veterans Justice Projects Manhattan Legal Services TOURO SCHOOL of Law November 7, 2014

Language Access Legal Rights Section 2 of Executive Order 13166, “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency,” requires Federal agencies to develop and implement a plan for improving access to services and participation in federally conducted programs and activities for individuals with LEP (August 11, 2000).

SSA’S LEP POLICY The SSA policy is “to ensure access to the programs we administer to all of the American public by clarifying and distributing our LEP policy and procedures to make public contact employees and the public aware of our service delivery guidelines.” Pursuant to this policy “Social Security will provide an interpreter free of charge, to any individual requesting language assistance or, when it is evident that such assistance is necessary to ensure that the individual is not disadvantaged,” and will not require individuals needing language assistance to provide their own interpreters. “

SSA’S LEP PLAN The SSA Plan for Providing Access to Benefits and Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) describes how meaningful access is required for LEP individuals. The four factors SSA considers when determining what constitutes reasonable steps to ensure meaningful access to LEP individuals are the: number or proportion of LEP persons in the eligible service population; frequency with which LEP individuals come into contact with the program; importance of the service provided by the program; and resources available to the recipient.

ASSESMENT OF RESOURCES STAFF- BILINGUAL, BICULTURAL MATERIALS QUALIFIED INTERPRETERS LEP WORKING GROUP PUBLIC SURVEY/FOCUS GROUPS

Multilanguage Gateway Social Security Information in Other Languages - American Sign Language العربية - Arabic Հայեր - Armenian 中文 - Chinese (Traditional/Long Form) فارسی - Farsi Français - French Ελληνικά - Greek Kreyòl Ayisien - Haitian Creole Hmong Italiano - Italian 한국어 - Korean Polski - Polish Português - Portuguese Pусский - Russian Af Soomaali - Somali Español-Spanish Tagalog Tiếng Việt - Vietnamese

LANGUAGE ACCESS SURVEY OF SSA OFFICES Lep survey 38 SSA offices 11 of 28 offices had posted signs 10 of 28- posted signs not clearly displayed Computerized Check-Ins Kiosks- not have all languages Lack of assistance for LEP claimants Slides- 9 SSA NYC- only Spanish Not explain interpreter policy

SURVEY RESULTS CONTINUED Materials- not available in all offices, in all languages LEP SSA Claimants requested print out materials Staff- not all know LEP Policy such as to interpreters( in person and by telephone), third party interpreters

ACTION STEPS COMPLAINT PROCEDURES COMMUNICATIONS FEEDBACK LOOP SSA TOLL FREE NUMBER Monday to Friday,7 am to 7pm