Pennsylvania officials have been working to improve the resident experience, from a new PA.gov website to the use of AI. AI technology helps the state government better serve its customers, including local governments and businesses.
At the center of this work is the Pennsylvania Office of Administration (OA)’s new Language Access Management Program (LAMP), announced in August. Leading the work is the OA’s first dedicated language access program manager, Sonya Rao, hired this year. Rao is charged with guiding the development of language access plans across agencies.
People interact with state government for many services, both online and in person, whether that be to get a driver’s license, a professional license or something else entirely, Rao said: “And at all of these points you might be meeting with or intersecting with the government service, and we’re just trying to open that door in as many ways as possible and make it as direct of an experience as possible for everyone.”
Serving all residents includes the approximately 1.7 million Pennsylvanians who speak a language other than English at home.
For digital government platforms like a web interface, there are access barriers when content is only available in one language. To address this, Rao has been working closely with the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience (CODE PA), which is charged with digitizing paper-based processes, with a goal of improving the user experience. CODE PA has user experience researchers and a content team focused on plain language, both of which are connected to language access.
“I think having them as a resource is a really great foundation for me to kind of build on from a language perspective,” Rao said.
The state has also been using AI technology to improve operations, and part of Rao’s role involves using AI for improved language translation speed and accuracy. Specifically, the state is leveraging an AI-powered feature on its website to translate content into 18 languages, Rao said. Officials are exploring how to improve that translated content by focusing on things like plain language and spelled-out acronyms.
The LAMP work involves coordination across state departments, with whom Rao can work to understand the unique needs of residents in the context of each department’s work.
“They’re telling me what they already offer, how that’s going, what kind of resources already exist on the ground,” Rao said. “And then it can become a little bit of a conversation: How can we use those resources better?”
Language access is an example of the state’s no-wrong-door approach to government, or the idea that any channel through which an individual connects with government is the right one. The state’s work to improve language access is “core to the mission of making our government services accessible,” according to Rao.
The state also issued an Invitation to Qualify for vendors to provide language services, including remote interpretation, document translation, and specialized or technical language support. The purpose, as Rao described it, is to make it simpler for vendors to deliver various language services by providing agencies with a prequalified vendor list.
The state’s investment in expanding multilingual language access includes an internal component, too, as OA and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry are piloting a pay incentive for bilingual state employees, an initiative announced in April.
“It’s just another way that we can ensure that all people you know, no matter what language they speak, can really quickly access the information that they need,” Rao said.
Moving forward, the focus will be on working with the CODE PA team to ensure clear messaging across languages, materials and state agencies, Rao said, to provide residents a consistently accessible user experience in the language they speak.
