In This Blog Post
If your language access strategy hasn’t changed in the last few years, your team may struggle to keep up in 2026.
When language access is handled thoughtfully and consistently, organizations see tangible benefits across their operations. Partnering with a professional language services provider like LSA supports:
Improved satisfaction and trust
Unified messaging across languages
Reduced miscommunication-related risks
Stronger brand reputation
Shortened appointment and interaction times
Deeper engagement with multilingual audiences
Ethical, compliant communication practices
From patients and customers to sports fans and community members, professional interpretation and translation solutions provide an experience that strengthens connection, confidence, and belonging.
Because language access now touches so many core outcomes, it can no longer be treated as a standalone service.
In 2026, effectiveness depends not just on interpreters or translations, but on how those services fit into daily workflows, technology systems, and compliance requirements.
Drawing on LSA’s latest innovations and decades of experience, here are nine ways organizations can better engage with multilingual communities, and how LSA can help.
1. Improve Communication and Reduce Risk by Choosing the Right Interpreting Mode
Not every interaction needs the same interpreting setup. A routine customer service call may work well over the phone, while a legal proceeding or medical appointment often requires video or in-person interpreting to capture visual cues, tone, and context. Choosing the right interpreting mode helps organizations communicate more clearly and reduces risk in every situation.
LSA offers a full spectrum of interpreting services including Over the Phone (OPI), Video Remote Interpretation (VRI), scheduled phone or video sessions, AI Interpretation, onsite interpreters for in-person meetings, and more. With coverage in 300 languages, including rare dialects and American Sign Language (ASL), this flexibility means you always have access to competent professionals when and where you need them most.
By giving teams the ability to choose the correct modality for each interaction, organizations can better provide clear, accurate communication for any situation.
2. Combine AI and Human Interpreters to Meet Demand Without Compromising Quality
Demand for language access is growing faster than many organizations can staff for with human interpreters alone. At the same time, not every interaction carries the same level of risk or complexity, and AI cannot fully replace the judgment and cultural understanding human interpreters provide. Companies that fail to recognize this will find themselves at a disadvantage.
That’s why the future of language access lies in the collaboration between humans and AI. By combining AI interpretation with human interpreters, organizations can meet high-volume, lower-risk needs quickly while reserving human expertise for conversations that require nuance, judgment, and cultural understanding — without compromising overall quality.
At LSA, we have crafted our solutions to harness the strengths of both. Our AI interpretation technology delivers rapid, scalable, and convenient services, while our skilled interpreters provide high-quality cultural insight and ethical integrity.
With our approach:
AI interpretation caters to urgent, low-risk requirements.
Human interpreters support complex or high-stakes conversations.
This hybrid model improves efficiency, standards of care, service, and trust across industries.
3. Remove Friction by Building Language Access into Daily Workflows
In fast-paced environments, staff don’t have time to search for language services or switch between systems. If requesting an interpreter takes too many steps, language access becomes an obstacle instead of support.
By building interpretation and translation directly into the workflows teams already use, your organization can remove friction and make multilingual communication easier to deliver consistently.
Some examples of this include:
Integrating interpreters within electronic health record (EHR) systems such as Epic
LSA integrates interpreters directly into EHR systems, like Epic, through secure API connections. LSA can also be found in the Epic Toolbox (not just the Epic Showroom), meeting Epic’s recommended standards for secure, reliable access to professional interpreters in hundreds of languages. This allows hospitals and health systems to request interpreters directly from their patient records system.
Incorporating language preference options into customer or patient profiles
Automating notifications and reminders in multiple languages
Other workflow-enhancing tools, like LSA Reverse Call Flow, Smart Check, and our Call Back feature, customize how calls and interpretation requests are routed to minimize wait time and improve efficiency.
When language access is built into daily workflows, staff are more inclined to use it, leading to a consistent and equitable experience for clients.
4. Extend Reach and Engagement by Making Video and Audio Content Multilingual
Video now plays a central role in how organizations communicate with their audiences. Multilingual audiences expect access to it as well, but language barriers can limit their engagement.
Solutions like LSA’s AI Video Dubbing make it easier to create accessible content on a large scale.
Organizations can use multilingual video for:
Patient or customer education
Training and onboarding
Public-facing communications
Social media and short-form content
For decades, subtitles and voiceovers have been the go-to methods for making video content accessible to multilingual audiences. Nevertheless, they have their drawbacks. Subtitles split the viewer’s focus between reading text and watching the video. Voiceovers can sound inauthentic and lack the speaker’s original emotional nuances. Conventional dubbing can be costly and labor-intensive, necessitating detailed manual synchronization.
LSA’s AI Video Translation & Dubbing uses cutting-edge AI technology to clone the speaker’s voice, sync lip movements, and deliver an authentic viewing experience in the target language.
5. Translate High-Volume Content Faster and More Cost-Effectively with LSA AI Machine Translation+
Many organizations produce large volumes of content that need to be translated quickly: websites, forms, educational materials, marketing content, etc. Translating these materials manually can be costly and time consuming.
But for low-risk content that has little legal bearing or specialized terminology, LSA AI Machine Translation+ combines advanced AI translation with human editing for accuracy and consistency.
It’s ideal for:
Websites
Knowledge bases
User instructions
Educational materials
Internal documentation
Combining machine translation with human review offers a faster, more cost-effective way to translate high-volume content for multilingual audiences.
6. Prepare for Changing Community Needs by Supporting Rare and Less Common Languages
As communities evolve, language needs extend beyond the most commonly spoken languages. Popular languages are often served, but rare dialects and under-represented languages can sometimes be harder to accommodate. Supporting a broader range of languages helps organizations meet changing community needs and provide more equitable access for everyone they serve.
LSA’s expanded coverage in over 300 languages, including rare dialects, makes it so that organizations can offer better service to all clients, patients, or customers, not just those speaking common languages.
This enables organizations to uphold equity and inclusion, ensuring no one is left behind due to language barriers.
7. Safeguard Data and Maintain Compliance with Secure Language Services
Language services often involve sensitive personal, medical, or educational information. With the rapid rise of AI language tools, protecting that information has become a top priority. Without proper safeguards, interpretation and translation can introduce privacy and compliance risks.
Organizations should evaluate:
Whether their AI interpretation and translation tools are secure
How data is stored, anonymized, or deleted
Compliance with HIPAA, FERPA, and industry standards
Whether their language provider uses SOC 2–compliant systems
LSA supports industry standards through secure systems, SOC-2 compliance, and rigorous interpreter and translation protocols that align with regulations such as HIPAA, FERPA, and other data-privacy requirements.
This keeps multilingual services secure, ethical, and compliant — whether delivered through interpreting, translation, or website localization.
Strong governance builds trust and reduces risk.
8. Increase Adoption and Effectiveness Through Language Access Training
Successful multilingual engagement depends on high-quality interpreters and translation tools. But if you don’t have staff who understand when, how, and why to use them, then they don’t provide much of anything at all.
Organizations see higher adoption and better outcomes when staff are trained in the effective use of interpreters, language tools, when to use each modality, and clear communication practices.
LSA supports these efforts with consultation, training, and ongoing support, which are especially useful for sectors like healthcare, education, legal, and public service.
9. Use Data and Analytics to Optimize Language Access Programs
In 2026, leading organizations will use data to refine their language access strategies.
Language access works best when it’s guided by data rather than guesswork. Without visibility into demand, usage, and performance, organizations risk long wait times, unnecessary costs, or using the wrong modalities. Using data and analytics helps teams optimize language access programs by aligning resources with real needs and improving outcomes over time.
LSA’s Client Portal provides visibility into interpretation and translation requests, usage patterns across languages and modalities, turnaround times, and important KPIs.
Metrics to evaluate include:
Language demand trends
Interpreter utilization
Cost efficiency across modalities
Translation turnaround times
User satisfaction and outcomes
This allows organizations to make informed decisions like when to use Machine Translation+ vs. human translation, which languages need more support, and where language demand is rising so resources are allocated where they matter most.
Is Your Language Access Program Ready for 2026?
Use this quick self-assessment to evaluate whether your current approach is keeping pace with changing expectations:
Do we choose interpreting modes intentionally based on the situation, risk level, and communication needs?
Do we use AI and human interpreters together in a way that balances speed, scale, and quality?
Is language access integrated into the systems and workflows staff use every day?
Are our video and audio communications accessible to multilingual audiences, not just our written materials?
Do we have a scalable approach for translating high-volume, low-risk content efficiently?
Can we support rare and emerging languages as our communities continue to evolve?
Are our language services secure and compliant with relevant privacy and data protection requirements?
Do staff understand when and how to use language access tools and services effectively?
Are we using data and analytics to monitor demand, performance, and outcomes across languages and modalities?
Your Next Steps for Strengthening Language Access
Strong multilingual engagement in 2026 means embracing a comprehensive language services strategy and building accessibility, compliance, and inclusion into your organization’s core operations.
At LSA, we offer a full suite of scalable solutions designed to meet every language need with accuracy and consistency. We support organizations across the full lifecycle of language access — from interpreting and translation to technology, compliance, and program optimization.
With over three decades of experience, we are committed to helping organizations navigate the complexities of language access thoughtfully and efficiently. If you’re ready to build or enhance a language access program that serves all communities and celebrates every voice, LSA is here to help.
Ready to strengthen your language access program? Connect with LSA to discuss practical next steps for your organization.
Prefer to start with a self-assessment? Download our Language Access Checklist to see where you stand.
