SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTATION AND LANGUAGE ACCESS RIGHTS

Tanya DouglasAttorney

Director, Disability Advocacy and Veterans Justice ProjectsManhattan Legal ServicesTOURO 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).

https://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/papers/1993v1p.html

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 GatewaySocial Security Information in Other Languages- American Sign LanguageArabic - العربيةՀայեր - Armenian中文 - Chinese (Traditional/Long Form)Farsi - فارسیFrançais - FrenchΕλληνικά - GreekKreyòl Ayisien - Haitian CreoleHmong Italiano - Italian한국어 - KoreanPolski - PolishPortuguês - PortuguesePусский - RussianAf Soomaali - Somali Español-SpanishTagalogTiếng 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 LOOPSSA TOLL FREE NUMBER 1-800-772-1213- Monday to Friday ,7 am to 7pmwww.socialsecurity.gov