The City of San José — the largest city in the Bay Area — relies on Bilingva to reach its residents in the languages they speak. San José orders under the Santa Clara County contract but operates as its own entity, provisioning and managing every request directly through the Bilingva portal. This year alone, we’ve translated more than a quarter of a million words for the city.
Translation at scale, across city departments
That 250,000-plus words a year moves across some of San José’s busiest departments — the Department of Transportation, Environmental Services, the San José Public Library, the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, the Mayor’s Office, and the Housing Department. Each request comes in through the portal and goes back out translated, formatted, and ready for the public.
Interpreting — with the deepest ASL bench in the region
The San José Police Department and city departments routinely call on Bilingva for interpreting at community meetings, in person and over Zoom. Demand for American Sign Language (ASL) and Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI) services is especially high — and Bilingva maintains the richest pool of ASL interpreters available, so the city can staff even short-notice, high-visibility meetings with confidence. Alongside ASL, the most requested languages are Vietnamese, Spanish, Korean, Tagalog, and Chinese, and we bring the interpreting equipment with us.
Localizing the city’s digital front door
Bilingva also provides website localization for the City of San José, including its Environmental Services Department — one of the largest, spanning recycling, parks and recreation, and more. When a resident can use the city’s website in their own language, that’s Title VI language access working the way it’s meant to.
Showing up when it matters most
Language access isn’t only routine documents and meetings. Bilingva supported the Mayor’s Office at San José’s International Overdose Awareness Day event — and when the San José Police Department gathered at SAP Center to honor fallen Community Service Officer Long Tham Pham, our team was there to provide Vietnamese interpreting for his family and community. Read about that day.
Serving a diverse city and need a responsive partner for government language services — translation, ASL and spoken-language interpreting, equipment, and website localization from a single vendor? Bilingva has served California government since 2005. WOSB-certified, SAM.gov registered.