New Feature: Localization across 100+ trainings (including all core DSP and ADS courses) is now live in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Korean. Available in your platform beginning April 1, 2026.

The direct care workforce in the United States is one of the most diverse in any industry. According to data from the University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration, nearly a quarter of all direct support professionals were born outside the United States, a rate significantly higher than the broader national workforce. In states like California, New York, Texas, and Florida, that percentage is even higher, with large numbers of DSPs whose primary language is Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, or one of dozens of other languages spoken across the country.

For years, this reality has sat in tension with how professional training has been delivered. The vast majority of eLearning content in human services has been offered exclusively in English, not because that reflects the workforce, but because building multilingual content at scale was genuinely hard. That is changing. Today, Training & eTracking Solutions is proud to announce the launch of localization across more than 100 trainings, including all core DSP and ADS courses, now available in six languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Korean.

This is more than a platform update. It is a meaningful step toward a more equitable and effective professional development experience for the people who do some of the most important work in our communities every day.

Why Language Matters in Professional Training

There is a strong and well-documented body of research on what happens when people learn in a second language versus their primary one. The short version: learning in a non-native language is significantly harder, and the consequences in a professional training context are real.

Cognitive load theory helps explain why. When a learner encounters new content in a language they are not fully fluent in, the brain must simultaneously process the subject matter and translate the language itself. This dual demand consumes working memory, reducing the capacity left over for actually absorbing and retaining the information being taught. Research published on this subject describes the process as learners having to "understand the foreign language, translate it to their native language, and then store the details," a mentally taxing sequence that can make training feel tedious and lead to knowledge gaps that persist long after the course is complete.

For DSPs, those knowledge gaps are not abstract. They affect how professionals respond to health emergencies, how they support individuals' communication and behavioral needs, and how confidently they carry out the day-to-day responsibilities of their role. Training in areas like the Fatal Five (the leading causes of preventable death among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities) requires genuine comprehension, not just completion. The same is true for medication administration, abuse prevention, person-centered planning, and every other core competency in the DSP skill set.

Delivering training in a professional's primary language does not lower the standard. It raises the floor for everyone. When a DSP can fully engage with content without language acting as a barrier, the result is better comprehension, stronger retention, and more confident application on the job.

Inclusion in Action: What This Launch Means for Your Organization

For administrators and HR managers at disability service organizations, the implications of this launch extend well beyond the training platform itself. The DSP workforce has faced a persistent retention challenge for decades. Annual turnover in the field has been estimated at approximately 46%, with a significant portion of departures occurring within the first six months of employment. When new staff members encounter onboarding and compliance training that feels inaccessible or overly difficult to follow due to language barriers, that experience can contribute to early disengagement, precisely when organizations most need staff to feel confident and capable.

Research consistently shows that employees are more likely to remain with organizations that visibly invest in their development and make them feel valued. Offering training in a staff member's primary language is one of the most direct signals an organization can send: we see you, and we are building this environment to include you fully. That message resonates especially strongly among immigrant and multilingual workers, who represent a substantial and growing portion of the direct care workforce nationwide.

What's Available at Launch

Beginning April 1, 2026, the following languages are live across 100+ courses in the Training & eTracking platform:

• English: existing courses unchanged

• Spanish: the most widely spoken non-English language in the U.S. direct care workforce

• French: serving professionals from Francophone communities in North America, Africa, and the Caribbean

• Portuguese: supporting a significant and growing segment of the direct care workforce in the Northeast and beyond

• Russian: available for professionals across communities in New York, California, and other major metro areas

• Korean: supporting professionals across diverse urban and suburban care settings

All core DSP and ADS courses are included at launch, with continued expansion planned across the full course library.

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Powered by Amazon Polly: High-Quality Voice Localization at Scale

The technical backbone of this localization effort is Amazon Polly, Amazon Web Services' advanced text-to-speech engine. Amazon Polly uses deep learning models to generate natural, human-quality speech across dozens of languages and voice styles, making it one of the most capable and scalable voice synthesis tools available today.

For eLearning, voice quality is not a cosmetic consideration. It directly affects comprehension and engagement. Monotone or robotic narration increases cognitive fatigue and makes it harder for learners to stay focused and absorb information. Amazon Polly's natural speech patterns help maintain the clarity and cadence that make audio instruction effective, in any language. This is what allows us to scale localization across 100+ courses without sacrificing the listening experience that makes training stick.

This is the same infrastructure approach used by major enterprise learning platforms to serve global workforces, now applied directly to human services and direct care, an industry where it has historically been underserved.

The Bigger Picture: Building a Workforce Development System That Works for Everyone

Localization is one piece of a broader commitment to workforce development that reflects the actual makeup of the direct care profession. The DSP role is, by any measure, one of the most demanding and most important jobs in the healthcare and human services ecosystem. As the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities has noted, DSPs must possess an extraordinary breadth of competencies, including health monitoring and behavioral support, person-centered communication, and community integration, while often working in highly autonomous environments with limited supervision.

Giving every member of that workforce access to training they can genuinely learn from (not just complete) is how organizations build the kind of skilled, confident, and stable teams that provide exceptional care. It is also how the field begins to address the structural challenges that have kept turnover high and quality outcomes inconsistent for far too long.

This launch also reflects our ongoing investment in content quality and coverage. We continue to expand our in-house training partnerships and subject matter expert network, so that the courses available in your platform, now in six languages, represent the most current, most relevant, and most effective professional development content available in human services.

"We see this as more than a feature — this is a workforce imperative. Our direct care and support community is diverse, and we believe this is inclusion in action."

— Training & eTracking Solutions

Have Org-Specific Trainings You'd Like Localized?

The 100+ courses available at launch are just the beginning. We are actively prioritizing which additional trainings to localize next, and your organization's input directly shapes that roadmap. If there are specific courses that are most important to your team, whether state-specific compliance training, specialty skill courses, or other content your DSPs rely on, we want to hear from you.

Complete our short survey to let us know which trainings matter most to your organization. We will use that feedback to prioritize localization across the rest of our course library. Localization Training Request – Fill out form

If you are new to Training & eTracking Solutions and want to learn more about how our platform supports DSP compliance training requirements and professional development for direct support professionals, we invite you to explore the platform and reach out to our team.

Inclusion in Action: Training & eTracking Solutions Now Offers Courses in 6 Languages