Robert Doar, commissioner of the Human Resources Administration, acknowledged shortcomings but said that language access was a priority.
Mr. Bloomberg said in a recent interview that language access was improving.
"On paper, it looks really strong," said Amy Taylor, who coordinates the language access project at Legal Services NYC, which examines city agencies for compliance with the law.
Aside from providing local-language access to basic information, Wikipedia is giving South Africans a chance to write their own history, Ms. Foster said.
"These are people who are being characterized as uncooperative witnesses, which can have a devastating effect on these cases," said Amy Taylor, language access project coordinator for Legal Services NYC.
At struggling hospitals, interpretation can seem like a luxury, despite longstanding federal and state laws requiring equal language access and studies showing that it cuts cost by improving quality.
"The concept of language access should be without people being questioned about their immigration status," said Jorge L. Barón, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a legal aid organization based in Seattle.
In addition, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed Executive Order 120 in July 2008, the department created a language access plan to guarantee immigrants a meaningful ability to take advantage of police services.
"Working with the Department of Justice, we have done that by opening up our Police Department and holding community meetings, by offering cultural sensitivity training to town employees, by providing language access tools to residents with limited English proficiency and by utilizing the town's Interfaith Faith Council to open up meaningful dialogue with residents about the concerns they have".
You can customize the language, access buttons, and other features to access the parts of your phone that you want, rather then just a generic setup.
