Communicating science to the public is essential to build an educated society that is inclusive and diverse. In order for this to be achieved, scientific concepts must be understood by a multilingual public. Scientific research is primarily accessible for an English audience only, however. According to US census data, in the United States, 21% of the population speaks a foreign language at home and 13.5% of that population uses Spanish. In Idaho alone, 8.2% of the population are Spanish speakers. Furthermore, the Hispanic population is increasing in university enrollment so we need to make science more comprehensive and inclusive for a broader and diverse student body. One way to achieve this is by fostering diversity in STEM programs. The Spanish Translation Project establishes representation for the Spanish-speaking community to disseminate scientific research locally and abroad in a comprehensible manner to a diverse audience. We propose an ongoing process to support bilingual researchers that want to share the findings with a broader Spanish-speaking audience. The outputs are scientific article translations and audio-visual materials in Spanish, which are vital for reaching the Hispanic population and fostering a scientific culture that is more representative and inclusive within the STEM community.

Reference

Explore Census Data. Retrieved July 11, 2020, from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/