The invisible barrier: How language shapes the health and education of Latinos in Kansas

Wichita, Kansas | April 3, 2026

By Claudia Amaro | Planeta Venus

Picture taken from the official Alce Su Voz website.

This article is part of a series that aims to bridge resources, institutions, and the Latino community in Kansas. Thanks to this survey and your participation, we will be sharing local solutions that are already working. This spring, we will also publish a guide that compiles these resources in an accessible, easy-to-share format.

For Latino and immigrant families in Kansas, asking for help in health or education settings has become a major challenge. The lack of services in their language means that many children and teenagers have to interpret for their parents, which can put important medical diagnoses at risk and affect school performance. In response, local leaders, academics, and families are joining forces through community organizing, education, and public policy advocacy to ensure that language access is recognized as a civil right. The goal is that no one should have to risk their life or their children’s future just because they do not speak English.

Planeta Venus seeks to shed light on a crisis that often goes unnoticed: language directly shapes health and education in Kansas. Without qualified interpreters in hospitals and schools, Spanish‑speaking patients may face preventable medical errors, and parents are left out of their children’s education, which worsens inequalities. In this report, we examine the legal and social causes of this problem, the consequences of minors acting as interpreters, and, above all, the work of the Alce su Voz coalition, which aims to make language access a core component of every clinic and school in the state.

Demographic context and health disparities

To understand the magnitude of this problem, we first must look at the data on Kansas’s population. Latinos are the fastest‑growing group in the state, but they also have the highest rate of people without health insurance, at 20.1%, compared to 6.2% among non‑Hispanic whites. However, having health insurance is not enough; the real challenge is understanding the care they receive.

Studies in Kansas show that language barriers reduce the use of primary care, make communication with providers more difficult, and are associated with lower satisfaction and worse health outcomes among people with limited English proficiency (LEP). In practice, this means that many Spanish‑speaking patients struggle to understand their diagnoses, treatments, bills, and even their basic rights in the health care system.

These inequalities are even more severe in certain areas. For example, in mental health, Latino adults receive less care due to the lack of services in Spanish. In chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension, treatment plans that are only in English are not effective for those who are not fluent in the language, which worsens control of these conditions.

Alce su Voz: Leading change from the university to the community

Alce su Voz was created to confront this inequality. It is a community coalition based at Wichita State University (WSU). WSU is a major public university in Wichita, the largest city in Kansas, which gives the coalition a key position in the state. Alce su Voz works to improve health equity for Spanish speakers and for people who speak Indigenous languages such as K’iche’, Akateko, Q’anjob’al, and Aguacateko, through community education, workforce development, and policy work on language access.

Dr. Rachel Showstack. Picture from Alce Su Voz social media.

Dr. Rachel Showstack, an associate professor of Spanish at Wichita State University, is the founding director of Alce su Voz. Under her leadership, the organization brings together Latino families, professional interpreters, health care providers, and community leaders. Thanks to more than $ 1,000,000 in support from the Kansas Health Foundation and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), the coalition has worked directly to close the communication gap. However, it has lost some funding due to changes under the current administration.

In an interview with Planeta Venus, Showstack is clear about the standard of care that must be demanded. “It is important to have a qualified interpreter in the patient’s language,” Showstack explains, and she notes that, for someone to be considered a qualified medical interpreter, “the person must have completed at least 40 hours of training for medical interpreters.”

When institutions do not offer this level of professionalism, the consequences can be serious. Showstack recalls a famous case from the 1980s in Florida that shows the danger of a bad translation: the story of Willie Ramirez. Ramirez, a young Cuban man in his early twenties, arrived at a hospital in a coma. His family said he was “intoxicado” (in Spanish, this usually means food or stomach poisoning). Still, without a professional interpreter, the doctor understood the word as “intoxicated” (in English, this implies being under the influence of alcohol or drugs).

Because of the prejudice that an unconscious young Latino man must be involved with drugs, they treated him for an overdose, even though he had a brain hemorrhage. Since he did not receive the right treatment in time, Ramirez was left quadriplegic. “It was a combination of miscommunication and prejudice that led him to become quadriplegic for the rest of his life,” Showstack says, emphasizing that tragedies like this are exactly what access to professional interpreters seeks to prevent.

The legal gap in Kansas: Federal laws without state backing

If the risk is so high, why do hospitals and clinics not always provide professional interpreters? The answer lies in the combination of state and federal health policies.

At the federal level, the law protects patients. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) prohibit discrimination based on national origin and require health entities that receive federal funds to provide meaningful access and qualified language services to LEP patients at no cost.

The problem, according to Showstack, is that Kansas does not have state laws that support these federal rules: “Although Kansas Medicaid (KanCare) pays for interpreter services, the problem is that Kansas does not have state laws that back up these federal rules.” She also tells us: “Although Kansas Medicaid (KanCare) covers interpreter services for its members, the state does not require mandatory competency standards for these interpreters or compliance with federal regulations on language access.” As a result, the quality of services varies greatly; some patients receive good care, but others depend on untrained bilingual staff or on phone agencies that hire people in other countries who do not know the local Latino community. Showstack added: “In addition to the lack of state legislation, there is no system in place to manage and support the delivery of the services.” This is why Alce su Voz created a document that seeks to improve the infrastructure for equitable language access services in health care in Kansas.

The burden on minors: The problem in education

This lack of support forces families to look for solutions on their own, and many times, they depend on their bilingual children, in what is known as “language brokering.” Studies in the region show that Latino children often act as informal interpreters for their families in government offices, hospitals, and schools. This is associated with higher childhood anxiety and lower academic performance, since children take on adult responsibilities and must understand complex medical or disciplinary information.

Showstack has seen the impact of this in her own university classrooms. “I have had students who miss class frequently because they have had to interpret for their parents in health care settings, since interpreters are not provided,” the professor shares.

This problem is almost identically replicated in the education sector. Take Wichita Public Schools (USD 259), the largest school district in Kansas, where 37% of students are Latino and more than 112 languages are spoken in students’ homes. Federal laws such as Title VI also apply to schools: failing to provide interpreters for parents constitutes discrimination. Parents have the legal right to receive all key school documents (enrollment, report cards, discipline policies, and special education or IEP meeting documents) in a language they understand.

However, when this does not happen, Latino students may miss out on special education services, be left out of programs for advanced students, or face misunderstood disciplinary measures, simply because their parents did not participate in the conversation due to language barriers.

Building solutions: Training and future vision

In the face of the system’s inaction, Alce su Voz is putting concrete solutions into motion. To create the necessary infrastructure, the coalition develops exam-prep workshops and has offered 40-hour medical interpreter training to several groups of interpreters.

Medical Interpreting Training by Alce Su Voz. Picture taken from Alce Su Voz Social Media.

They also make sure the community knows its rights. They have traveled to cities such as Arkansas City (in southern Kansas) to organize educational workshops. To ensure full inclusion of the Indigenous population, these events include specific tables for speakers of Mayan languages such as Akateko, Q’anjob’al, K’iche’, and Aguacateko, each with its own interpreter.

At the institutional level, the effort is already showing results. Alce su Voz is currently working directly with Coffeyville Regional Medical Center, a medical center in southeastern Kansas, to develop and implement a formal language access plan funded by federal grants.

Looking to the future, Showstack envisions a Kansas ten years from now where multilingualism and language justice are true priorities. In that ideal scenario, a Latino student or patient would feel “comfortable speaking Spanish in any context and [be able to] trust that they will not be judged or that people will not make judgments about them based on the fact that they speak Spanish or English with a foreign accent.” She also imagines a professionalized work environment where bilingual staff at clinics and schools are not pulled away from their main duties to do improvised translations. The goal is “for interpreting to be seen as a profession” and for bilingualism to be a valuable asset to the community, not a burden placed on minors.

A message to the community: Know and demand your rights

If you or your family face language barriers in hospitals, medical clinics, or public schools in Kansas, the main solution is to know your legal rights and refuse to use your children as interpreters. Under U.S. federal law (Title VI), any educational or health institution that receives federal funds is required to provide you with a professional, qualified interpreter at no cost. You have the non‑negotiable right to understand medical diagnoses and your children’s educational plans (such as IEPs) in Spanish or in your Indigenous language. The next time you visit the doctor or attend a school meeting, formally request a professional interpreter when you schedule your appointment. In addition, you can reach out to the organization Alce su Voz (by visiting its website at alcesuvoz.wichita.edu or finding it on Facebook and Instagram) to access educational resources, learn more about your language rights, or, if you are bilingual, get information on how to receive professional training to become a certified medical interpreter and help your community. Your voice and your language matter, and demanding respect for both is the first step toward true equity.

This article has been produced as part of the 2025-2026 Fellowship of AltaVoz Lab, a nonprofit organization that mentors, trains, and empowers local journalists to produce impactful, collaborative, accountability-oriented, and public service journalism projects in media outlets serving historically disadvantaged communities across the United States.