ALBANY COUNTY — The state launched an Office of Language Access within its Office of General Services two years ago and this week, after its second annual report was published, the governor’s office lauded its success.

“For centuries, New York State has been called home by people from around the world who immigrate to our country in search of a better life for themselves and their families,” Governor Kathy Hochul said in a release from her office.

“In only two short years,” she went on, “the Office of Language Access has completely changed how and where we communicate with New Yorkers with limited English proficiency about vital state services and programs that can help them in all aspects of their lives.”

Spanish continues to be the most common language requested for translation and interpretation, the report says.

Among other accomplishments, the governor’s office said, is a listening tour that raised awareness about language access rights in New York state and administered a language services community survey in 26 languages. 

The office also lists the state’s inaugural “Person-First and Identity-First Language Glossary,” which is to be regularly updated.

The glossary itself says it “aims to raise awareness and support the use of culturally sensitive terms and phrases that center the voices and perspectives of those who are often marginalized or stereotyped. It explains the origins of problematic terms and phrases and suggests alternatives.”

For example, the glossary says the term “prostitute” should be avoided and, instead, either “person who engages in sex work” or “human trafficking victim” should be used.

Also, the governor’s office says, meetings with not-for-profit organizations focused on language access and shared information about the statewide language access law and the OGS centralized language service contract.

In addition, programs provided executive state agencies free equipment and resources to efficiently conduct simultaneous in-person interpretation and tablets for remote video interpretation, and 13,000 responses were received to a Workforce Language Survey to gauge state employees’ linguistic diversity and abilities, which will inform future training.

An Age Analysis Report was completed, showing the largest age group of individuals with limited English proficiency is 25 to 44 years old, which accounts for 29 percent of the total state population with limited proficiency.

The five counties with the highest population of people with limited English proficiency are located in the New York City and Long Island regions and account for 76 percent of the total population with limited proficiency.

The graph for Albany County shows there are 13,669 people with limited English proficiency, which is 0.05 percent of the county’s population — and the top foreign language spoken at home is Spanish, followed by Chinese.

This is similar to the statewide picture in which Spanish, Chinese (including Cantonese, Mandarin, and other dialects) and Russian are among the top five languages spoken among all five age groups. Depending on age group, Yiddish, Bengali, Arabic, Korean, Haitian Creole or Italian round out the top five.

For each county, the most common languages are different for each age group.

The report is meant to help state agencies and language service providers determine how to best deliver language services, including methods most accessible to represented groups, such as telephone lines for older populations or social media for younger populations.

State agencies are to issue updated Language Access Plans, detailing actions they will take over the next two years to ensure New Yorkers with limited English proficiency can access their services.

These plans include a list of translated documents and languages available, total staff with language access skills and abilities, a training plan, an annual monitoring plan, and outreach strategies.