Peggy Liao

Context

The Language Access Program is a citywide program within the City of Seattle that aims to provide meaningful and equitable access for residents regardless of their language preference. Upon starting as the Language Access Program Manager, I discovered the translation process was decentralized, leading to poor quality and inconsistent terminology. Additionally, staff members perceived the translation process as lengthy and challenging with little value.

Challenge

I see a need to design a centralized system that supports city staff in translating and communicating in languages other than English.

Approach

To further understand the challenge, I initiated a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process and took a human-centered design approach to identify solutions. I spoke with Department Directors, City front-line staff, industry experts, and translation vendors to understand their perspectives and pain points.

• Interview and Survey. I surveyed and interviewed staffers, the system’s main users, to map out existing processes and identify pain points.

• Participatory Workshop. I hosted a workshop with department directors to align needs and priorities.

• Vendor and Expert Engagement. I interviewed and learned from translation companies and other cities.

• Budget and Expense Data. I partnered with the City Budget Office and Finance team to assess existing translation-related budgets and expenses.

Key findings

I synthesized research results and responses into these findings:

• Writing in plain language is a challenge. The existing English content is not simple enough. It is full of technical terms and jargon. With overly complex language, it’s challenging for translators to translate accurately.

• City staffers have limited time and resources when handling translation projects.

• Being relevant to our local immigrant community is critical. Translation projects were usually outsourced to translation vendors that worked with international translators. As a result, translations were often incorrect given that the translators did not have local knowledge about Seattle’s government.

Design

Based on the findings, I identified solutions and developed key features for the new system.

• Embedded content review. I embedded a step in the new workflow for project managers to review English content for simplicity and clarity. This way, the system also improves access for English readers.

• Easy to Use. I found a cloud-based translation management tool as a one-stop shop, from project submission to payment. All city employees now can submit a project request using this portal.

• Economical. The translation tool also incorporates an online database to store and recycle translations to save time and money.

• Relevant to local immigrant communities. I developed a translation workflow where the city can work with local translators and invest in the local immigrant workforce.

Implementation

• Cross-departmental partnership. I invited staffers to test different tools before making final decisions to ensure that the tool is user-friendly. I partnered with IT experts to help evaluate the tool’s privacy and security standards and worked directly with the procurement team to establish a city blanket contract with the software vendor.

• Leadership buy-in. I presented my recommendations to our office Director and the Mayor's Office, successfully convincing them to adopt the new system and securing permanent funding for its implementation and ongoing administrative costs.

• New system promotion and adoption. Collaborating with other departments, I developed training materials and conducted sessions to ensure city staff were comfortable using the new system. Engaging marketing materials, such as this video, were created to spread awareness and adoption.

• Community translator team. I successfully onboarded and trained over 40 translators covering 20 languages – all from the local community.

Result

More than 25 departments have embraced the new system and it continues to expand: total translated words grew 10% in the second year, compared to the first. The system earned a remarkable user satisfaction score of 4.9 out of 5 according to a user survey. I am immensely proud of our progress in making the City of Seattle's language access program one of the most community-centered and technology-driven initiatives in the US. Through strong stakeholder support and innovation, the city has significantly improved communication and services for our immigrant community members. These efforts have been recognized in a Migration Policy Institute blog post.