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I'm in a similar situation to Geoff's - the engineers actually ask for input for both wording and usability in the UI. I think there are several reasons for this:
1) Many of our developers are not native English speakers and they know that what they write in English may not be grammatically correct or concise. They are willing to ask for help (Most native speakers are less willing, IME)
2) I have provided useful/valuable input in the past and that carries weight when they are deciding who needs to have input.
3) The engineers recognize that working together during implementation (getting my input early) helps them avoid the need to change things later.
I also have another advantage - as a trusted member of the development team, I have access to the source tree from which our product is built. When I find a purely textual error, I open the source file and edit the text directly, and then check it back in. This willingness to "get my hands dirty" (as one engineer put it) has gone a long way towards building credibility with them. Exercising caution (so that I've never introduced errors that have broken the build) has also helped
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