In the 2021 Census, one in four Canadians —or 9 million people— reported having a mother tongue other than English or French; and in the Metro Vancouver region, that number jumps to 43%.
Despite this, there is a considerable lack of language accessibility policies to support such a large percentage of the region. While some municipalities and various other jurisdictions have patchwork policies, the scope, coverage, and activation of these are inconsistent. Though the associated challenges and barriers have been felt by non-English speaking communities long before, this was especially felt over the course of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Hua foundation, on behalf of the Language Access Project coalition, is launching Language in Practice | A Toolkit for Equitable Communications: a web resource for communications and engagement practitioners who work in ethnically and linguistically diverse communities.
The toolkit was created in collaboration with local organizations and initiatives (Bảo Vệ Collective, Yarrow Intergenerational Society for Justice, and Sliced Mango Collective), and highlights case studies of the ways that they have supported their communities to navigate systemic language barriers. The toolkit provides guiding questions and tangible frameworks for working in tandem with communities, to build a wraparound communications system that says to a broad range of language communities: “We value you and your experiences as you are.” In addition, the project team conducted a policy scan to identify strategies already in practice in similar population contexts: San Francisco, New York City, and Toronto.
“Fundamentally, language accessibility is the right to understand and to be understood,” says project lead Christina Lee. “We know that every community has different access needs, and even these shift over time. Rather than defining a perfect solution, we refer to Language in Practice as a commitment to key principles of responsiveness, resourcing, and availability.”
The Language in Practice toolkit can be accessed in full at https://languageaccess.huafoundation.org/