Indiana language services
Indiana Translation Services
Certified interpretation and translation across the Hoosier State
300+languages
20,000+linguists
24/7dispatch
The picture in Indiana
Why language access is an operating requirement here
Read the capability statementIndiana's language profile is dominated by one fact that surprises people who have not worked here: after Spanish, the languages that matter most in this state came from Burma. Fort Wayne is home to one of the largest Burmese communities in the United States, and greater Indianapolis to a Chin population estimated in the tens of thousands.
Around one in ten Indiana households speaks a language other than English at home, and roughly 222,757 residents report limited English proficiency. Indiana is the nineteenth-largest state economy and among the most manufacturing-intensive in the country, which puts the same languages in front of a plant HR office as in front of a courtroom.
Bond Enterprise Language Services coordinates interpretation, certified translation, and localization throughout Indiana from its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, with interpreters travelling to assignments and remote modalities covering the rest.
Languages we cover across Indiana
The languages Indiana actually asks for
BELS supports more than 300 languages and dialects through a network of over 20,000 professional linguists. In Indiana the list below matters more than the headline number: this is a state where the second and third most consequential languages are ones most providers cannot source at all.
Spanish
The most requested language statewide, reported by more Indiana households than every other non-English language combined, and needed across courts, clinics, and school enrollment.
Burmese
Fort Wayne holds one of the largest Burmese communities in the United States. Demand runs through immigration filings, healthcare, benefits, and school settings, and it is daily rather than occasional.
Chin (Hakha and Falam)
Greater Indianapolis holds a Chin population estimated between 35,000 and 40,000. Chin is not Burmese, and treating them as interchangeable is the single most common failure in Indiana language access.
Mandarin and Cantonese
Driven by the research universities, the life sciences sector, and manufacturers and logistics operators with Asia-Pacific partners.
Arabic
Requested across healthcare, legal, and higher-education settings, and by employers with Middle East and North Africa ties.
French
Central African communities resettled in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne bring French as a working language, often alongside a first language that is harder still to source.
Need a language that isn't on this list?
These are the languages Indiana asks for most often, not the limit. BELS covers more than 300 languages and dialects through a network of over 20,000 linguists — tell the coordinator which one you need.
Cities and communities we serve
Language services across Indiana
Interpreters travel to courts, hospitals, and school districts across Indiana's metros, dispatched from a single office in downtown Columbus. Where travel is not practical, video remote and over-the-phone interpreting cover the same 300+ languages.
Industries we serve
Where the work is in Indiana
Advanced manufacturing and automotive
Indiana is one of the most manufacturing-intensive states in the country, from vehicle and RV production to steel and industrial equipment. The language work here is technical and consequential: engineering specifications, maintenance and safety documentation, export compliance material, and multilingual training content for a workforce that in some plants speaks Burmese and Chin as often as Spanish.
Explore this industryHealthcare and life sciences
Indiana's health systems and its life sciences sector both carry language obligations, and its resettled communities concentrate that demand into a handful of languages that are hard to source at short notice. Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act extends a meaningful-access obligation to health programs receiving federal funds, covering intake, consent, discharge, and follow-up. BELS handles this work through HIPAA-compliant workflows.
Explore this industryCourts, immigration, and certified translation
The Indiana Supreme Court certifies court interpreters through a written examination and a three-part oral performance examination, and holds them to the Indiana Interpreter Code of Conduct and Procedures. BELS provides court interpreters working to the NAJIT Code of Ethics, and certified translation of the immigration and civil documents Indiana's resettled communities need most.
Explore this industryEducation and social services
Fort Wayne and Indianapolis districts enroll families whose home languages barely register in national statistics. School language access is unusually broad — IEP and 504 meetings, enrollment, disciplinary hearings, parent conferences, health forms — and it fails quietly when a district cannot get past Spanish.
Explore this industryGovernment and public services
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Executive Order 13166 require recipients of federal funding to provide meaningful access to people with limited English proficiency. In Indiana that means a benefits office or a city counter needs a route to Burmese and Chin, not only to Spanish, and needs it without an appointment.
Explore this industryLogistics, corporate, and enterprise
Indiana's position on the interstate network makes it a national distribution hub, and its employers recruit from the same multilingual communities that fill its classrooms. Policies, handbooks, safety material, contracts, and website and application content all have to work in more than one language to be worth writing.
Explore this industryThe legal picture
What Indiana law and federal law actually require
Indiana's obligations are the federal ones, sharpened by a state judiciary that runs its own certification programme. What makes Indiana different is not the rule but the sourcing: the languages the rule applies to here are unusually hard to find.
01
Indiana Supreme Court certification
Indiana certifies court interpreters through the Indiana Supreme Court's programme — orientation, skill-building and simultaneous workshops, a written English examination, and a three-part oral performance examination, plus a background check and an oath to comply with the Indiana Interpreter Code of Conduct and Procedures.
02
Title VI and Executive Order 13166
Recipients of federal financial assistance must take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access to people with limited English proficiency. In Indiana this obligation bites hardest on languages a provider cannot supply on demand — which is the point at which a plan on paper stops being a plan.
03
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act
Health programs and activities receiving federal funds carry the same obligation in a clinical setting. With Burmese and Chin, using a relative as the interpreter is not merely poor practice — it is frequently the only option a provider without a network has, which is exactly the exposure the rule exists to prevent.
04
NAJIT Code of Ethics
BELS court interpreters work to the NAJIT Code of Ethics for court interpreters, covering accuracy, impartiality, confidentiality, and professional conduct.
What that means in practice
Indiana's language access problem is a sourcing problem. Around 222,757 residents report limited English proficiency, and a substantial share of them speak languages that a provider either has in its network or does not. Meeting the obligation depends on qualified, credentialed linguists in the right languages — not on bilingual staff pressed into service.
Meeting a language access obligation?
Whether it is Rule of Superintendence 88 in an Indiana court, Title VI at a public agency, or Section 1557 in a clinic, the obligation is met by credentialed linguists. Tell the coordination team what the setting is and who is asking.
How we deliver
Interpretation and translation in Indiana
The four ways a request is delivered. Which one fits depends on how much notice you have, whether the parties need to see each other, and whether what you need at the end is a conversation or a document.
Certified document translation
Documents we translate for Indiana clients
What “certified” actually means
A certified translation is a translated document accompanied by a signed statement from the translation provider attesting that the translation is complete and accurate and that the translator was competent to produce it. That certificate is what allows an authority to accept a document it cannot read in the original.
A notarized translation is not the same thing. Notarization adds a notary public's verification of the signer's identity to a certified translation; it says nothing further about the translation itself. Which of the two you need is decided by the body receiving the document, so it is worth confirming before the work starts rather than after.
BELS prepares certified translations for submission to USCIS, courts, consulates, government agencies, educational institutions, and regulatory authorities, preserving the formatting, meaning, and integrity of the source document.
Certified translation servicesLegal, civil, and immigration records
Birth, marriage, divorce, and death certificates, passports, police records, licenses, permits, and affidavits, alongside contracts, court records, adoption paperwork, divorce decrees, powers of attorney, and legal correspondence prepared for filing.
Academic and credentialing documents
Diplomas, transcripts, degrees, enrollment records, recommendation letters, and academic evaluations, prepared to what credential evaluation agencies and admissions offices expect.
Medical and clinical documents
Patient records, consent forms, discharge instructions, and regulatory documentation, handled under HIPAA-compliant workflows.
Business and workplace documents
Policies and handbooks, training and safety material, technical documentation, financial statements, marketing collateral, and website and application content.
Have a document that needs certifying?
Send the file and say which authority will receive it — USCIS, a court, a university, a consulate — and the certified translation will be prepared with the statement of accuracy that body expects.
The evidence
Indiana by the numbers
Every figure below is published by the body named beneath it. Together they are why language access in Indiana is an operating requirement rather than a nicety.
- 222,757
- residents with limited English proficiency3.26% of the population report speaking English less than very well.American Community Survey
- 10.3%
- of households speak another languageSpanish is the most common, reported by 5.48% of Indiana households.American Community Survey
- 20,000+
- Burmese residents in Fort WayneOne of the largest Burmese communities in the United States, and the largest Rohingya community in the country.Indiana Department of Workforce Development
- 35–40,000
- people from Burma in greater IndianapolisLargely Chin, concentrated on the city's south side — a community with few equivalents anywhere in the Midwest.Encyclopedia of Indianapolis
- 19th
- largest state economyIndiana ranked nineteenth among the states by gross domestic product in 2025.U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
- Rule V
- certifies court interpretersIndiana certification requires a written examination and a three-part oral performance examination.Indiana Supreme Court
Common questions
Frequently asked questions about Indiana language services
Can BELS supply Burmese and Chin interpreters in Indiana?
Yes, and the distinction matters: Chin languages such as Hakha and Falam are not dialects of Burmese, and substituting one for the other is the most common failure in Indiana language access. Tell the coordinator which language the person actually speaks. BELS sources through a network of over 20,000 linguists across more than 300 languages.
Does BELS provide interpreters for Indiana courts?
Yes. Interpreters work to the NAJIT Code of Ethics. The Indiana Supreme Court certifies court interpreters through a written examination and a three-part oral performance examination, and holds them to the Indiana Interpreter Code of Conduct and Procedures. More on legal and judicial language services.
Which languages are most requested in Indiana?
Spanish leads statewide. After that, Burmese and Chin are the languages that define Indiana — Fort Wayne holds one of the largest Burmese communities in the United States and greater Indianapolis a Chin population estimated between 35,000 and 40,000. Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, and French follow.
How many people in Indiana need language support?
Around 222,757 Indiana residents — 3.26% of the population — report limited English proficiency, and 10.3% of households report speaking a language other than English at home.
Does BELS have an office in Indiana?
No. BELS has one office, at 341 S 3rd St, Suite 100, Columbus, OH 43215. Interpreters travel to Indiana assignments, and video remote and over-the-phone interpreting are available anywhere in the state.
Are BELS certified translations accepted by Indiana courts and USCIS?
Yes. Certified document translations are prepared for official use and accepted by USCIS, courts, universities, consulates, and government agencies, and carry a signed statement of accuracy alongside the translation. See certified translation services.
Can Indiana public agencies contract with BELS through veteran or small-business set-asides?
Yes. BELS is a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) and a Veteran Friendly Business Enterprise, and meets SBA small business size standards. Procurement identifiers, NAICS and PSC codes are published on the BELS capability statement.
Request a translator in Indiana
Tell the coordination team what you need and a BELS coordinator will confirm the right language professional, modality, and schedule.