• The expansion of internet services and the ever-increasing availability of internet access have made information concerning human rights and racial and ethnic discrimination even more readily accessible to the U.S. public. Virtually every federal and state agency has a website on which information about the agency structure and programs — including those of agency offices of civil rights — can be found. Many of these websites include relevant information in languages other than English, which increases dissemination to persons with limited English proficiency within the United States. In this regard, I would like to highlight recent efforts by the United States to improve access for persons in the United States with limited English proficiency. Noting the holding by the United States Supreme Court that failure to take reasonable steps to ensure meaningful access for such persons is a form of national origin discrimination, on August 16, 2010, the Attorney General sent a letter to all state chief justices and state court administrators concerning the need to bring state court language access policies and practices into compliance with federal civil rights requirements. I would also like to highlight the work of the Access to Justice Initiative within the U.S. Department of Justice. The Initiative's staff works across federal agencies, and with state, local, and tribal justice system stakeholders, to increase access to counsel and legal assistance and to improve the justice delivery systems that serve people who are unable to afford lawyers. Specifically, the Initiative is designed to improve the availability and quality of indigent defense; enhance civil legal representation for those without great wealth, including the middle class as well as the poor; promote less lawyer-intensive and court-intensive solutions when possible; focus on the legal needs of the most vulnerable; exchange information with foreign ministries of justice and judicial systems on respective efforts to improve access; and encourage the