Language Access Program

Download a flyer about the Language Access Program. (Right-click, then select, "Save link as..." and save to your computer.)

Why the City of Seattle Prioritizes Language Access

The City of Seattle's vision is that all residents, regardless of their proficiency in English, should have meaningful access to City programs, services, and activities.

Through its Language Access program, OIRA collaborates with City departments to ensure that English language learners are able to access the information and services they need and that departments can effectively serve them. The City has a goal of becoming a national leader in immigrant integration and a model for language access.

Language access is a necessary component of the City's Race and Social Justice Initiative goals. Our work helps the City address new access and equity challenges resulting from Seattle's growth and the city's increasing diversity over the last decade.

The commitment to ensuring language access is important in Seattle because more than one in five residents speak a language other than English at home, and over fifty thousand residents need information in another language to fully understand City services. Making our programs, websites, and customer services accessible in multiple languages helps everyone get the support they need, participate in their communities, and stay informed. Language should never be a barrier to accessing local government.

Two young Black women, one wearing a head scarf and the other wearing a hijab are sitting behind a table inside of a room talking to a Black community member who is smiling as she looks at the resources available on top of the table.

The Work of the City's Language Access Program

Executive Order 2017-10 directs City departments to update and prioritize implementation of the Language Access Program by taking the following steps: On October 2, 2017, Seattle Mayor Tim Burgess signed a Language Access Executive Order to ensure that every city resident, especially immigrants and refugees, can access City of Seattle services and information, regardless of their English proficiency.

Following the Executive Order, the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) expanded its existing Language Access Program. As a recipient of federal funding, the City of Seattle must also comply with Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origins. Title VI requires recipients of federal financial assistance to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access to their programs and services for individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP).  

The City of Seattle’s Language Access Vision

The Language Access program partners with City of Seattle departments to make information and services more accessible, fostering civic engagement and ensuring meaningful, equitable access.  The City of Seattle’s language access efforts are guided by these goals:

  • Welcoming City. Create a welcoming environment by ensuring City departments and staff use culturally and linguistically responsive communication, so immigrant and refugee residents feel truly represented and supported.
  • Inclusive Integration. Support immigrant and refugee community members in successfully integrating into and participating in Seattle’s civic, economic, and cultural life by providing consistent in-language communication and outreach.
  • Trust and Relationship. Strengthen trust with immigrant and refugee communities by actively soliciting, listening to, and incorporating community feedback to continuously improve language access efforts.

Two Seattle Latina women, each holding a baby, appear to be talking to someone next to a sign that reads: "Spanish".

How the Language Access Program Provides Oversight

After the Executive Order 2017-10  was passed, the Language Access Program established the following processes and continues to implement and refine them:

  1. The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) provides departments with a Language Access Plan Template and a Language Access Toolkit to guide development of department-level language access plans.
  2. Every two years, each department with public-facing programs submits a Language Access Plan to OIRA for review and feedback. The next set of Language Access Plans will be due in 2027.
  3. Every year, each department prioritizes a portion of its existing annual budget to implement its Language Access Plan.
  4. OIRA provides departments with technical assistance for language access, equitable outreach, and inclusive public participation programs.

Every three years, OIRA updates the list of primary and emerging languages based on the best available data, including the American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau. 

2026 Seattle Most Commonly Spoken Languages Other Than English

The City gathered data points from the US Census, Seattle Public Schools (SPS), Public Health-Seattle & King County, Seattle Police Department, Seattle Immigration Court Case Language Data, Seattle Housing Authority, and Seattle Municipal Court Interpreter Services on most spoken or requested non-English languages. Data points from LanguagelLine, a City-wide interpretation service, and Civiform, a City benefits and assistance platform, were also interpolated. 

We recommend the following priority languages for communications about citywide programs and services. These recommendations identify languages spoken by large Seattle communities, especially people with limited English proficiency and recent refugees and immigrants.

The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs will update the data and recommendations once every three years in partnership with the City demographer.

Below are the top 15 languages in order of highest prevalence:

1. Spanish
2. Chinese*
3. Vietnamese
4. Somali
5. Amharic
6. Tagalog
7. Korean
8. Tigrinya
9. Oromo
10. Japanese
11. Russian
12. Persian (including Farsi and Dari)**
13. Arabic
14. Portuguese
15. French

* Chinese has two written forms: Traditional and Simplified. Most people who read one can also understand the other. For written materials, we recommend translating into Traditional Chinese. This choice fits Seattle's Chinese-language community and their English skills. For spoken communication (interpretation), we recommend offering both Mandarin and Cantonese.

** Farsi (Iranian Persian) and Dari (Afghan Persian) are similar when written, so readers of one can usually understand the other. When spoken, the two are less similar because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and regional vocabulary. For spoken communication (interpretation), we recommend pairing Farsi speakers from Iran with a Farsi interpreter and Dari speakers from Afghanistan with a Dari interpreter. For written materials, we recommend translating into Dari or Farsi, but for City department communications it usually isn’t necessary to translate into both languages.

Download the full report here. 

Immigrant and Refugee Affairs

Oksana Bilobran, Interim Director
Address: 700 5th Ave, Suite 1616, Seattle, WA, 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 94573, Seattle, WA, 98124
Phone: (206) 727-8515
OIRA@seattle.gov

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The mission of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs is to improve the lives of Seattle’s immigrant and refugee communities by engaging them in decisions about the City of Seattle’s future and improving the City’s programs and services to meet the needs of all constituents.