Bill of Language Rights

This Bill of Language Rights was developed by the Ad Hoc Committee on Bilingual Service Delivery and accepted by the ASHA Board of Directors in 2023. Please see the full report at Ad Hoc Committee on Bilingual Service Delivery Final Report [PDF].

Communication is a fundamental human right. All persons, regardless of their communication ability, have an essential right to communicate in their preferred and heritage language(s), including signed language(s) and via augmentative and alternative communication. Given that language is deeply rooted in and inseparable from culture, and is a defining element of a person’s identity, language rights are a powerful extension of human rights. This Bill of Language Rights is to explicitly emphasize clients and families as well as their distinctive narratives, and to prioritize their communication in any chosen language(s). This document is a critical step toward changing current practices to ensure language justice.

Historically, a monolingual, English-only ideology has prevailed in the United States and has overly influenced clinicians, researchers, aides, technicians, assistants, and students in audiology and speech-language pathology. This ideology has done great disservice to speakers of world languages and multilingual persons with and without communication disorders and has resulted in the abject failure to create an environment that nurtures linguistic diversity and preserves heritage languages. Honoring clients’ language rights is integral to socially just, culturally responsive, culturally sustaining, and ethical practice in audiology and speech-language pathology. Without a holistic consideration of clients’ relevant and meaningful languages, audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and aides, technicians, assistants, and students cannot accurately understand or support clients’ language expression and comprehension abilities or their functional communication repertoire.

With this Bill of Language Rights¹, we uphold that each person has the following fundamental language rights:

The right to be provided equitable care and unconditional respect as a multilingual communicator, regardless of language background.
The right to service delivery without the influence of linguistic racism, discrimination, or exclusion in any context.
The right to access care and services in their heritage language(s).
The right to communicate in their heritage language(s).
The right to have translanguaging ² recognized as a valid index of communicative competence
The right to communicate with a clinician who understands the client’s language(s) and related cultural or linguistic frameworks pertaining to communication and health.
The right to access trained interpreters who can support the client’s language understanding and expression.
The right to receive multimodal resources in heritage language(s).
The right to make informed decisions about language interventions that prioritize, preserve, and nurture their heritage language(s).
The right to have access to service providers with training in culturally, linguistically and historically responsive practices.

¹ In discussing multlingualism, it is necessary to include visual forms of language for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) populations. Authors of this document acknowledge there are circumstances wherein children with hearing loss may have been deprived access to a formal language and therefore, may have not established a solid language foundation. This population requires special consideration when conducting evaluations or planning intervention. This discussion is beyond the scope of this proposed Bill of Language Rights. For more informaton, view ASHA’s Practice Portal page on Language and Communicaton of DHH Children and the National Associaton of the Deaf’s (NAD) Bill of Rights for DHH Children.

² Translanguaging: This term refers to the natural and fluid language practices of bi/multlingual persons and presents a way of conceptualizing and honoring how a multlingual person dynamically uses their full linguistc repertoire.

Relevant Works

Alim, A. S., Rickford, J. R., & Ball, A. F. (2016). Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190625696.001.0001

Ascenzi-Moreno, L., & Seltzer, K. (2021). Always at the bottom: Ideologies in assessment of emergent bilinguals. Journal of Literacy Research, 53(4), 468–490. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X211052255

Baker-Bell, A. (2020). Linguistic justice: Black language, literacy, identity, and pedagogy. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315147383

Brady, N. C., Bruce, S., Goldman, A., Erickson, K., Mineo, B., Ogletree, B. T., Paul, D., Romski, M., Sevcik, R., Siegel, E., Schoonover, J., Snell, M., Sylvester, L., & Wilkinson, K. (2016). Communication services and supports for individuals with severe disabilities: Guidance for assessment and intervention. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 121(2), 121–138. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-121.2.121

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2016). Building an organizational response to health disparities. https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/OMH/Downloads/CLAS-Toolkit-12-7-16.pdf [PDF]

Garcia, O., Johnson, S. I., & Seltzer, K. (2017). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Caslon. https://products.brookespublishing.com/The-Translanguaging-Classroom-P1374.aspx

Gay, G. (2018). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (3rd ed.). Teachers College Press.

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

Muhammad, G. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Scholastic Teaching Resources.

National Association of the Deaf. (2022). Position Statement on Health Care Access for Deaf Patients. https://www.nad.org/about-us/position-statements/position-statement-on-health-care-access-for-deaf-patients/

New York City Department of Education. (2022). Bill of Rights for Parents of English Language/MultilingualLearners. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/learning/multilingual-learners/bill-of-rights-for-parents-of-english-language-learners

Otheguy, R., García, O., & Reid, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 281–307. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2015-0014

Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X12441244

Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (Eds.). (2017). Culturally sustaining pedagogies: Teaching and learning for justice in a changing world. Teachers College Press. https://www.tcpress.com/culturally-sustaining-pedagogies-9780807758335

Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights Follow-Up Committee. (1998, April). Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights. https://culturalrights.net/descargas/drets_culturals389.pdf [PDF]

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards. https://thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/clas/standards