Communication is a vital aspect of community and essential for equal participation in a group. Central to communication is the language that group speaks. "Heightened cultural immersion, increased social integration, and a heightened sense of belonging" have all been linked to successfully learning the language or languages of a particular community or group of people (Bhatti & Alzahrani, 2023). Learning a community's language is, for many people, the gateway to learning their culture, norms, values, history, and behavioral patterns. Without sufficient language proficiency in the region's predominate language, it becomes difficult to complete daily activities, potentially impacting one's mental health. When someone faces these challenges due to a lack of linguistic proficiency, they face what is known as a language barrier.

Language barriers present a major roadblock to obtaining community or legal services, completing applications, making community connections, and receiving information services. As the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Toolkit’s Community Advisory Council mention, community members may not know about or are uncomfortable asking for language accommodations, are not given the opportunity to request them, or are excluded due to the "time, place, and topic," while librarians may not know how to use language accommodations, not understand how to interact with people from other cultures, or face restrictive budgets (n.d.). Tied into this idea is linguicism, which creates a systemic power dynamic of languages based on the idea that one language or dialect is better and "more correct" than another.

When the barriers start impacting both the people who need the service and the people who provide the service, they become systemic barriers and are more likely to be ingrained into operations. While systemic barriers are difficult to overcome, it is not impossible. Perkins (2017) discusses the importance of learning about the grammar of other languages and learning how to overcome linguistic barriers created from lack of fluency. While it is impractical to learn every language a patron might speak, it is possible to learn the most common errors made by language learners. Perkins' example is specific to native Chinese-speakers who are learning English, but the lesson can be applied broadly. Instead of expecting perfect grammar and vocabulary from your non-native speaking patrons, approaching the interaction with an understanding of the linguistical differences is beneficial for the interaction and helps to overcome these communication barriers.

When discussing access to resources, literacy levels are often the first statistic considered when talking about language barriers. The American Library Association reports that "literacy is both a barrier to using library services designed for non-English speakers and is what most libraries support in specially designed services and programs" (2008). But, literacy can not only be considered in regard to the country's dominant language. Literacy must also be considered in regard to a person's native language literacy levels. When someone's native language literacy is low, the access barrier becomes significantly higher and much more difficult to overcome. When someone has native language literacy, the challenge then becomes increasing target language literacy to facilitate resource access. Due to this, the American Library Association recommends "English as a Second Language (ESL), language-specific materials and collections, computer use and computer classes, story time and special programs" as programs to be integrated into library services to support linguistically diverse community members (2008).

In examining computer usage, it can also be noted that linguistically diverse communities are also likely to face barriers to access of technology. As many language-learning methods are provided online or through mobile apps, libraries often provide access to technology and accounts with one or more of the major language-learning websites as a significant part of their language services. Digital inclusion in this way is incredibly important, as it can allow people to have access to much more information that is capable of being physically stored in any one library building. But, as Yeh and Swinehart note, simply providing access to the technology is insufficient; patrons need to be provided with the skills and knowledge to be able to successfully use said technology (2019).