Washington State Courts - Court Interpreters

Language Access Basic Training

The Language Access Basic Training (LABT) Suite provides an introduction to language access for all court employees. This training was initially a collaborative project funded by the State Justice Institute and supported by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Language Access Advisory Committee of the Council of State Court Administrators (COSCA). Content related to Washington State has been added to the original training.

Courts can use this training as an introduction to language access for all court employees to ensure an understanding of ethical and legal obligations, as well as current best practices in serving limited English proficient and non-English speaking individuals.

Each link below will open a module in a new window. The system does not automatically save your progress but you can use the Tracking Sheet below to track which modules you have completed.

Language Access Training Overview

These modules introduce court staff to language access services and acts as an overview of the additional training. Later modules in this collection will provide more detail on the fundamentals of language access services.

Module 1 Introduction to Language Access

This module provides a starting framework for understanding language access services.

Module 2 Legal Basis

This module explains the federal and state laws supporting language access.

Module 3 Professional Standards

This module explores best practices in language access.

Module 4 Roles of Court Staff

This module details the differing roles of interpreters, bilingual staff, and monolingual staff in the provision of language access services.

Module 5 Cultural Competency

This module examines the importance of cultural differences when working with limited English proficient individuals.

Module 6 Language Access Services

This module presents guidelines for providing good customer service.

Module 7 Language Access Course Resources

This module includes a master list of all resources within the Language Access training series as well as additional module support materials.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the New Mexico Center for Language Access for their permission to use the content from their training modules to include in our own training. The creation of their modules was a collaborative project funded by the State Justice Institute and supported by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Language Access Advisory Committee of the Council of State Court Administrators (COSCA).