Language Access

The City of Pittsburgh, Office of Management and Budget, is requesting proposals for language accessibility and communication services citywide on an as-needed basis, with proposals due November 17, 2026, and a non-mandatory pre-proposal meeting on November 3, 2026 via Microsoft Teams.

The City requires demonstration of good faith efforts to achieve MBE (18% goal), WBE (7% goal), Veteran-Owned Small Business (5% goal), and LGBTQIA+ business (3% goal) participation; good faith effort is weighted at 10 points in evaluation. Interpreters and translators must be fluent in English and relevant source languages, possess professional experience in human-services language assistance, demonstrate cultural competency, comply with HIPAA and confidentiality requirements, and be legally authorized to work in the U.S.

The scope includes interpretation services (online, telephone, and video remote interpretation), written translation, live captioning, language access and cultural competency training, and language proficiency testing. Expected annual usage totals 50 hours of online interpretation, 50 hours of telephone interpretation, 480 hours of video remote interpretation, 120,000 words of written translation, 480 hours of live captioning, 8 hours of training, and 8 hours of language proficiency testing. The City prioritizes Tier One languages (Arabic, Nepali, Spanish, Swahili, Mandarin, French) and Tier Two languages (Maay Maay, Somali, Korean, Burmese, German, Karen, Russian, Kizigua, Hindi, Uzbek). Service delivery requirements include onsite interpretation within 48 hours (24 hours expedited), 24/7/365 telephone interpretation availability, and written translation within five business days (two business days expedited).

The contract is a four-year agreement; one or more vendors may be selected with separate or joint awards by service type. Evaluation criteria are firm qualifications and experience (15 points), project team qualifications (15 points), project approach and plan (30 points), cost proposal (30 points), and diversity good faith effort (10 points). Written questions are due November 10, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. Award decisions are anticipated in November or December 2026.