Kenneth – Including Diverse Voices in Knowledge Production

Kenneth is a recently hired assistant professor in biology. As a part of his institutional orientation, he attends a workshop hosted by the institutional review board on language accessibility.

Kenneth’s research is focused on diabetes, and his inquiry generally requires analyses of blood samples from aging adults. Kenneth initially disengages from the workshop as the focus is on the importance of offering research recruitment materials like informed consent and calls for participants in multiple languages. Kenneth discerns that since his research is focused on human physiology and not cognition, his research does not require sampling from people who speak a language other than English.

As the workshop progresses, Kenneth’s interest is piqued as the facilitator discusses the ethics of making knowledge production accessible to diverse research subjects. The facilitator offers several compelling examples of how several significant population characteristics are correlated with language, as language shapes the regions where people live and has direct and indirect connections to people’s diet, exercise, and other behaviors that influence physiology.

Kenneth is inspired to make his research protocols more accessible but doesn’t know where he will get the additional funds to pay for translation services. Kenneth reaches out to his department chair about availability of institutional resources and also for guidance about including translation costs in grant applications.

Kenneth’s ability to secure funds is slow-moving; however, within three years Kenneth is able to commit to providing his research protocols in three languages: English, Spanish and an additional third language that is most relevant to the region he is sampling from.