Language Discrimination

Language discrimination occurs when a person is treated differently because of her native language or other characteristics of her language skills. For example, an employee may be experiencing language discrimination if the workplace has a “speak-English-only” policy but her primary language is one other than English. She may also be the victim of language discrimination if she is treated worse than other employees because she speaks English with an accent, or if she is told she does not qualify for a position because her English is not good enough. Language discrimination may also occur if a person is denied access to businesses or government services because he or she does not speak, understand, read or write English well.