Category Archives: DEI-BR

Gender-neutral language is a highly controversial issue across the world and the debate is now also becoming part of a culture war in Latin America, says the author of a recent article in The NY Times. In 2021, Uruguay’s public education agency issued a memo limiting the use of inclusive language. Proposals to ban gender-neutral …

“Argentina’s ban on gender-neutral language in schools reignites a debate that is reverberating across the world“

The immensely popular Cambridge Latin Course, which has been used to teach generations of British schoolchildren and has sold over 4 million copies, is undergoing its biggest revision in 20 years to improve the representation of women, minorities and enslaved people. This is in response to a consensus that it needs updating for 21st-century students and …

“Cambridge Latin Course revised to improve representation of female figures and ethnic mix in Roman Empire”

What is meant by “fairness” in tests? How is “fairness” related to “validity”? How do you preserve fairness of a test across languages and cultures in multilingual assessments? How do different cultural backgrounds influence fairness and test results? These are some of the issues addressed by cApStAn co-founder Steve Dept at a recent talk as …

““Your fairness is not my fairness”: culture-driven perception shifts and what can be done about them”

Awareness of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in tests, assessment, polls and surveys is growing, becoming increasingly indispensable as it both ensures the fairness of tests and the reliability for any data collection instrument. It is a very positive move! We at cApStAn are not  DEI-BR experts per se. We are a language company which partners …

“On-Demand Webinar | cApStAn & DEI-BR in multilingual and multicultural Tests & Surveys – Language variations and cultural considerations”

Looking at standardized tests and questionnaire content through the lens of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Bias Reduction (DEI-BR) Standardized tests and questionnaires are used in a variety of contexts such as admission to university, certification, accreditation, or hiring. Fairness, validity and reliability are objectives that every testing organisation strives to address. The processes in place …

“Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Bias Reduction Consultancy”

by Pisana Ferrari – Branding and Social Media Manager Despite progress in recent decades, gender disparity still affects many aspects of economic, social and cultural life. Two researchers at the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California have used AI to uncover a very substantial gender disparity, with a 4:1 male-female imbalance, also …

“New research using AI on a corpus of 3.000 books reveals a 4:1 male-female literary imbalance”

by Pisana Ferrari – Branding and Social Media Manager “CODA”, the winner of the 2022 Oscar for “Best picture”, is one of a number of recent films about the Deaf community (1) (2). It tells the story of a hearing daughter in a Deaf family (“CODA” stands for “ Child Of Deaf Adults”), who helps …

“The surge of sign languages on screen is a sign of better representation for the Deaf community. Or is it?”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Around the world people who do not identify as male or female are increasingly using gender-neutral pronouns. Many have taken to adding these in their e-mail signatures and social media profiles, and pronoun badges are also becoming popular in companies, schools and universities. Some languages …

“The gradual rise of gender-neutral pronouns in Hong Kong and mainland China”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village Never before has translation been as important as during the coronavirus pandemic. Understanding relevant medical terms is vital at all times but all the more so during a global health crisis, where compliance to containment measures is critical in order to protect individuals and the …

“COVIDLatino, a project to disseminate critical, timely, culturally sensitive, entertaining and relatable COVID-19 information for minority communities”

Recently, Steve Dept, cApStAn’s founding partner and director of strategic partnerships was interviewed by Margaux LUCAS-NOWACKI, PhD student in political sciences, University of Strasbourg. The session was very informative and we thought of sharing the questions and answers with everyone in the survey localisation space. Could you describe the whole process of translating a survey …

“Comparability of certain notions, and perception of ethnicity in particular, across EU countries”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village The “Best film” Oscar was won by “Coda”, a film about a hearing daughter in a deaf family who helps her family’s business while pursuing her own aspiration of becoming a singer. The film has a cast of largely deaf actors. At the Awards ceremony …

“The Academy Awards have long been criticized for lack of representation but the 2022 edition was a celebration of diversity”

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village According to a recent study titled “Harnessing the power of age diversity”, published in the Harvard Business Review, while companies have in recent times renewed their diversity efforts, only a tiny percentage include age as part of their DEI strategy. This is a missed opportunity: …

“Are we overlooking an important source of diversity in the workplace, i.e. age?”