Language Gap Denies Service To Immigrants; City Urged to Hire More Multilingual Employees
CORRECTIONS: A District Extra article July 4 about making city government services more accessible to residents who do not speak English incorrectly referred to Hien Vu of Boat People SOS as a man. She is a woman. (Published 7/11/02)</br></br>The District has fallen short in efforts to make government services more accessible to residents who do not speak English, and simply translating more forms and brochures is not enough, witnesses testified recently.</br></br>Residents who speak languages other than Spanish are particularly disadvantaged in trying to communicate with the city, witnesses told the D.C. Council subcommittee on Human Rights, Latino Affairs and Property Management during a recent hearing.</br></br>Under laws dating to the 1970s, city government agencies must translate written material such as application forms into Spanish if they are related to the "health, safety and welfare" of the Latino population.</br></br>The 2000 Census put the number of Hispanic residents in the District at nearly 45,000, about 8 percent of the overall population.