Submit Comments to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

On Friday, March 21, 2025, I attended the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) briefing on Language Access for Individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in Washington, D.C. The briefing featured four panels, each with 2-5 subject matter experts, giving their testimony on how language barriers impact access to government services and healthcare for people with LEP.

The USCCR is also accepting written comments from the public in addition to the testimony that was given. I highly encourage interpretation & translation professionals (of spoken languages) to submit comments! We are subject matter experts on language access and we are also in a unique position because we bear witness to the experiences of people with LEP on a regular basis.

If you’d like to submit a comment, I will provide the details at the end of this article, but I will also provide you with a bunch of information here, in an easy-to-access format, to make submitting your comment easier. My goal is also to empower you to provide the highest-quality written comment possible so that the Commission can be as well-informed as possible about the realities of language access in the United States.

Step 1: Review the Briefing

First and foremost, I highly recommend watching the briefing or reading the transcript. This will help give you some context and likely even some ideas for what to include in your comment. For your convenience, I’m providing you with a bunch of resources for ALL the ways you can review the briefing:

Kelly’s Video Recap (69 minutes)

I attended the briefing in-person and took 15 pages of notes! I’m not sharing my notes publicly because, well, listen… can anyone else really understand your interpreting notes? 😅 BUT I did create a video series summarizing the briefing, adding context where necessary, and sharing my opinions. All in all, there are 6 videos (introduction, a video for each panel, and an outro with information for commenting) and the total runtime of all the videos together is 69 minutes.

The longest video is 16 minutes, so you can even make a plan to watch or listen to one video per day to make it manageable, with time to spare to write your comment!

Below, I’ve shared the playlist of all the videos, but here’s also a list of each part with links and runtimes:

Pro-Tip: You can always watch or listen to these recordings at a higher speed so it won’t take you as much time to get through them. I have another video on my YouTube channel showing you how! Don’t let the title fool you, it still shows you the same trick.

Full Briefing Recording (6 hours, 54 minutes)

The whole briefing was livestreamed on The Commission’s YouTube channel, but all in all it was about 7 hours long. If there is a particular part of the briefing you would like to watch in its entirety, I’ve provided convenient timestamped links below for each section and panel in the livestream.

Pre-Briefing Meeting (starts at 00:39:28)
Introductory Remarks and Panel 1 (starts at 01:08:54)
Overview of the Current Language Access Landscape
Panel 2 (starts at 02:39:27)
Language Access in Government Services and Healthcare
Panel 3 (starts at 05:09:28)
From the Field: Community Advocates’ Views on Language Access
Panel 4 (starts at 06:21:30)
From the Field: The Lived Experiences of Individuals with Limited English Proficiency

Transcript or Panelists' Written Testimonies

Transcript or Panelists’ Written Testimonies

Okay, so, I’m not sure who’s dedicated enough to read the whole 209-page, ~56,000 word transcript… but just in case you are, you can access the full USCCR briefing transcript here. At an average reading speed, it’ll probably take you about 4 hours.

You can also read the individual panelists’ written testimony, but I don’t recommend this because this will not include the questions and comments by commissioners. The written testimony from each panel is uploaded to separate folders in this publicly-shared online folder. Their written testimony may not exactly match their verbal testimony, but each panelist was given 7 minutes to speak. There were 16 panelists in total.

Step 2: Write your Comment

Once you’ve gotten an idea of what was discussed during the briefing, this should give you a good starting point for your comment. There are no requirements for the length of your comment, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend writing anything longer than what the panelists submitted (see the previous paragraph). I think the longest written testimony was about 1500 words.

I’ve also provided a BUNCH of resources here to serve as inspiration for your comment. Obviously you don’t need to include all of these things! Pick a few that resonate with you the most and go from there.

Great Content Like This Doesn't Write Itself

You may be surprised to know: despite spending hours creating engaging content each week, I earn nothing from the vast majority of it. A small contribution is not only a great way to show appreciation for my free content, but also to enable me to dedicate more time to creating it!

Kelly’s Recommendations

I mention a bunch of suggestions of what to include in your comments in the video series I published about the USCCR briefing on language access. In addition, I also talk about how I had the opportunity to chat with some of the commissioners after the briefing. The items marked with a STAR emoji (⭐) are suggestions that came directly from the commissioners I spoke with.

Every single one of us should reiterate the difference between interpretation & translation
- Many commissioners & panelists mixed them up
⭐ Options for Certification for Interpreters
- Kelly will provide detailed info on medical/healthcare interpretation certification (CCHI and NBCMI)
- Please only provide accurate information that you are absolutely certain of.
- Remember: a certificate of completion from an interpreter training program is NOT a certification!
⭐ Language access violations you’ve witnessed or heard about within the LEP community
⭐ Impact of the Executive Order declaring English as the Official Language of the U.S.
- Even if you don’t know if it’s because of the Executive Order, have you noticed any changes since the Executive Order?
Feedback on the use of machine translation (e.g., Google Translate) and AI
- Google Translate & AI translation fails you’ve seen would be good!
Trends affecting language access in the language access industry
- How has your job been affected by this administration?
- What does this mean for people with LEP?
The quality (or lack thereof) of translations you see working as an interpreter
Why relying on friends & family members (especially children) to interpret is problematic
Explaining why remote interpretation is challenging
- Some panelists criticized over-the-phone interpretation, I think they need to understand the difficulties we face and how they can be mitigated.
Other countries that offer language assistance
- Commissioner Adams seems to think no other countries offer language assistance, and he even verbally accosted a panelist about this.

Panel 2 Questions

In reviewing panel 2’s written testimony, I discovered that The Commission may have given them questions to answer (Panel 2 was Language Access in Government Services and Healthcare). So, these questions are directed at employees of organizations that provide government services or healthcare.

How does your organization provide language access to individuals with limited English proficiency?
How does your organization balance the cost of translation and interpretation services with the need to provide access?
How does your organization determine which languages to translate materials into and for which languages to provide interpreters?
What are the unique challenges in providing language access across different languages?
What are examples of challenges or successes in providing language access for individuals with limited English proficiency?

Panel 3 Questions

In reviewing panel 3’s written testimony, I discovered that The Commission likely gave them questions to answer (Panel 3 was Community Advocates’ Views on Language Access). So, these questions are geared towards advocates who work for organizations that directly or indirectly support language access.

What challenges do individuals that your organization serves face when it comes to language access? Are there any specific instances of challenges or successes with language access that you can share?
To what extent is language a barrier when individuals your organization serves attempt to access government services or healthcare?
Do some language minority groups in your area face more challenges with language access than others?
Is there anything social service agencies or hospitals in your area do particularly well to provide language access?
What improvements would you like to see social service agencies or hospitals make to increase language access for members of your community?

Step 3: Submit Your Comment

Before you finalize and submit your comment, it might be a good idea to share it with a colleague or two for some feedback. Please don’t ask me to do this for you, I’m already reviewing as many of our colleagues’ comments as I am able to.

The deadline for submitting comments is April 21, 2025. Comments can be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to:

OCRE/Public Comments,
ATTN: Language Access LEP,
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
1331 Pennsylvania Ave. NW,
Suite 1150, Washington, DC 20425

Kelly (Grzech) Henriquez

Kelly is a Certified Medical/Healthcare Interpreter (CMI-Spanish, CHI-Spanish) and a medical interpreter trainer. She work as an independent contractor in the greater Richmond, Virginia area as a Spanish-English medical and mental health interpreter. Her passions include affirming interpretation for sexual and gender diverse populations, supporting interpreter mental health, and interpreting developmental-behavioral pediatrics.

Submit Comments to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights