The Global Application of Inclusive Language

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The move to implement more inclusive language to deliver content that does not exclude people on the grounds of gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, or any other criteria, is changing how organizations communicate. Many large businesses have already defined their diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy, but what does that mean when it comes to international audiences or domestic multicultural communities? Does the strategy even translate? The movement began in the United States, but as a global – and still evolving and sometimes contentious – issue, inclusive language is everyone’s concern.

Why is inclusivity important?

Your organization communicates with customers, clients, prospects, and partners in a multitude of ways. The intent of that communication is to engage with as many of your target audience members as possible by delivering information that is enticing, helpful, valuable, and respected. If content inadvertently offends or excludes any member of your audience, you incur risks. These range from losing a single customer to brand shaming on social media, right up to major financial penalties in cases where inclusivity is mandatory – for example, for communications that fall into the domain of Title VI of the American civil rights act of 1964 (“Managing Translation of LEP Content”).

But inclusive language is much more than using English, Japanese, or Swahili in the right context. It requires you to avoid the choice of words and phrases that imply exclusion, are hurtful or insulting, or even do harm. Words and images are powerful: organizations have a moral obligation to use them wisely. Many companies, government bodies, and not for profit organizations now have their own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy – at least, for English – published on their websites. However, few so far have extended DEI policies to take into account how inclusivity can apply in multiple languages and locales.

What are the challenges for global application of inclusive language?

You cannot apply a headquarters DEI policy across the planet without considering how it will play out in each target language and market. Every combination of language and locale has nuances that wise localization teams and DEI experts will assess and consider. These factors include: -

• Linguistics.
  Does the language and grammar allow easy translation of your inclusive source? Or is adaptation required from translators and interpreters? For example, gendered languages such as French, German, Polish, Spanish, and Ukrainian all assign genders to nouns such as peoples’ titles, which can then imply that all doctors are male, or all nurses are female. Your source content becomes non-inclusive simply through the act of translating it correctly. Japanese, while not a gendered language, traditionally employs the concept of onnarashii (女らしい) with “ladylike” words used by women but not men. What must your linguists do, to make sure the same inclusivity applies when grammatical constructs dictate otherwise? They need guidance – through training, style guides, and terminology.

• Cultural requirements.
  What are the expectations of inclusivity in the local market – and are there any risks for applying inclusive messaging? Does your target audience expect the same as the U.S. market, or is inclusivity ridiculed as being too “woke” and Americanized? Opinions differ country by country, even for those with a common language: for example, between French-speaking Canada and France, across Brazil and Portugal, or for Argentina and Spain. There may also be contrasts between age groups: students versus retirees, for example.

• Political influences.
  Has the local government made a stand on inclusivity, either by demanding it through rules and regulations, or by decrying any aspect? Is there a body that controls language use; for example, organizations such as the Académie française in France, or the Real Academia Española (RAE) in Spain?

• Personal bias.
  No matter how welcoming of inclusivity anyone believes themselves to be, education, heritage, and upbringing all contribute to both conscious and unconscious biases. When applying a DEI policy globally, you must consider how these biases may play out; for example, a content creator’s unconscious bias that leads to difficult-to-translate text, or linguists who do not agree with what they consider to be American “wokeism,” and therefore whose word choice then derails explicitly inclusive marketing campaigns.

What areas should you examine?

Consider how your content addresses age, ability, beliefs, community, ethnicity, gender, heritage, mental or physical health, housing status, immigration status, race, religion, size, skin color, or any other criteria that may identify a particular group of people. Put everything under the microscope. Concepts that you may take for granted may now be unacceptable. For example, the hierarchical terminology used for decades to describe relationships between a main IT server and dependent components – master and slave – is today inappropriate.

Assuming that people address themselves only as Mr. or Mrs. – or even Ms. – may limit or annoy your audience. However, providing an unlimited set of choices for titles on a form means you must then find non-existent equivalencies in other languages. This is a good opportunity to ask why you are even collecting the data. Is knowing a person’s preferred title genuinely important? Is there a better way of identifying data that you really need?

Rely on the wisdom of your community. People who live and work in each target market have a better feel for inclusive language locally and will provide valuable insights. They may be aware of non-inclusive terminology in the target language that will operate against your DEI policy, even though the source term is unobjectionable. Valuable aides can be your company’s in-country marketing teams or other employees, your partners and resellers, or – perhaps even more so – your trusted LSPs.

How do LSPs and linguists deal with inclusive language?

As part of our recent research into inclusive language (“Inclusive Language”), CSA Research interviewed language service providers to examine how they are addressing the challenge. There is a broad spectrum of activity: some wait for instructions from their clients, or simply translate what is provided, inclusive or not; others proactively develop terminology and style guides in advance of customer requests. A small number of providers are delivering AI-enhanced processes to identify non-inclusive or offensive content and make active suggestions on how to improve it.

LSPs identified gendered languages as the most difficult to render inclusive. However, they also told us that it is always possible to find a solution. For example, it may require subtle rewriting to rephrase a sentence to address a topic slightly differently but with the same meaning. This type of transcreation takes more time and effort: buyers who expect their vendor to take this action should also be ready to compensate them for the additional work.

We also surveyed freelance linguists to gauge their receptiveness to inclusive language. We encountered a broad spectrum of responses, from those who consider it a fad worth ignoring, to others who make sure their translations are inclusive, regardless of whether their client has instructed them to do so.

Therefore, we advise buyers of language services to collaborate with their providers to set expectations, make sure they assign inclusivity-trained linguists to the job, and find out how each LSP can help. You might also want to encourage your providers to collaborate by sharing terminology and data with each other. This could also benefit the localization industry as businesses strive to use consistent vocabularies, to identify problematic content, and to eliminate bias from machine translation engines.

Better practices

Begin with the source. Making content inclusive should not be the responsibility of your language partner unless you engage them for content creation.

• Know your markets.
  Understand how receptive and demanding each locale is for inclusive language – or not. Share this information with the people managing DEI policy – they may not always be aware of global market conditions. Continue to monitor this area as it frequently and rapidly changes.
• Be humble.
  No organization is perfectly inclusive yet. Ask for feedback from customers, partners, and employees. Engage a diverse team of linguists and reviewers. And expect continual change as the world experiments with various forms of inclusivity: what is a correct term or acronym today may be outdated next week.
• Find the right balance.
  You may have to achieve a compromise between your company’s DEI goals and what works to maintain and grow business in certain markets by being inclusive, but not provocative. In-country teams, partners, and trusted LSPs can all help you achieve this.

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