Senator Sal DiDomenico has joined forces this legislative session with Representative Adrian Madaro of East Boston and a coalition of immigrant and civil rights advocates from across the Commonwealth to introduce new legislation that would ensure equal access to government services, programs, and activities for people with limited English proficiency. DiDomenico and Madaro have filed S.2040/H.3199, An Act relative to language access and inclusion, to standardize, and provide enforcement mechanisms for, language access at public-facing state agencies.
Massachusetts is one of the most linguistically diverse states in the country, with 1 in 10 residents having limited English proficiency. However, there is currently no comprehensive language access statute in Massachusetts to ensure that non-English speaking residents have a fair and equitable opportunity to obtain an education, apply for benefits, receive housing assistance, or represent themselves in court. While Massachusetts has long needed to build the capacity of public-facing state agencies to meet the language access needs of an increasingly diverse population, the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically exposed the incapacity of state agencies to provide consistent services in other languages.