City of Bend outlines expanded language-access program, highlights Spanish translation priority

The City of Bend presented a refreshed language-access program on May 20, telling the Accessibility Advisory Committee that the effort centers on policy, staff training, interpretation and translation and a community-facing outreach plan.

Lindsay Wenglowski, equity management analyst and acting language access coordinator for the City of Bend, told the committee the program is built on an administrative policy adopted in spring 2024 and a citywide needs assessment conducted last year. "The work sits on the legal bedrock of the Civil Rights Act," Wenglowski said, noting Title VI and the city’s obligations because it accepts federal funding.

Wenglowski said the program uses four main components: an administrative policy, an organizational needs assessment, staff training and a public plan that includes resources such as "I speak" cards and a Spanish translation of the language access web page. She described interpretation (spoken or signed language services) and translation (written-language conversion) as distinct tools and said the city uses oral translation to make written materials available in languages for which it does not provide proactive written translations.

The presentation said federal data and local sources show the city has linguistic diversity: more than 30 languages are present in Bend, an estimated 8.4% of residents report speaking a language other than English at home, and about 1.1% of residents are estimated to be limited English proficient (LEP). Wenglowski emphasized that those estimates have margins of error and that smaller language communities and indigenous oral languages can be undercounted in Census categories.

Wenglowski said the city follows Department of Justice LEP guidance and federal standards when deciding which documents to translate proactively. Based on current population data, Spanish is the single language that reaches the federal threshold for proactive translation of frequently used, high-impact documents; other languages are served through interpretation or oral translation on request.

Committee members asked about dialects, oral-only languages, and how contractors account for regional variations. Wenglowski said the city evaluates interpretation vendors on their capacity to serve dialectal and less-common languages and uses qualitative data from community organizations to identify language needs beyond federal datasets.

Wenglowski also described program elements for reaching community: a feedback form on the language-access web page, a cross-departmental working group to share best practices internally, subject-matter glossaries for departments to provide to vendors, and a planned community initiative called "Cafecitos" aimed at outreach to Spanish-speaking residents.

The committee discussed operational considerations: staff should request interpreters ahead of events when feasible; project managers should weigh the urgency and impact of information (safety, health, mobility, benefits) when prioritizing translations; and event planning should account for cultural safety and outreach locations. Wenglowski said the city will continue to refine priorities in future organizational assessments and to track which departments need proactive translations and when.

The presentation closed with a request for committee input on outreach and community awareness; committee members praised the work and suggested continued coordination with other civic and community partners.

Ending: The program will remain iterative, with the city monitoring requests, user feedback and departmental needs to guide future proactive translations and interpreter deployments. The city asked the committee for suggestions about outreach and community partnerships and signaled further updates at future meetings.