Language Access Services

The County of San Mateo is soliciting the services of a qualified company to provide multilingual interpretation and/or translation services for a variety of settings. Many County departments currently provide access to interpretation and translated documents to Limited English Proficient clients and community members in numerous languages to provide high quality services and to abide by state and federal laws. This RFP is to solicit additional vendors to provide urgent translation services, and in-person and/or hybrid interpretation services. Interpretation services would include, but are not limited to: public meetings including the Board of Supervisors meetings, commission meetings, webinars, community meetings, stakeholder meetings, or other events. These services may be required for events occurring outside of normal business hours (8am-5pm) or on weeknights/weekends. For example, community meetings may be held in the early evening (6-9pm) to allow for residents to attend after work. Translation services may include urgent requests, and would need to be provided within 48 hours. Full desktop publishing services and support for all requested languages must be included. The County expects high quality, culturally-appropriate services, with strict quality assurance to minimize errors. No machine generated or online translation programs such as GoogleTranslate or DeepL are allowed.