Communicating Science in Spanish to Diverse Audiences

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