As discussed throughout this section, a key consideration of each instance of technical communication is accessibility. Understanding and ensuring accessibility is an important goal for a technical communicator, and one way in which technical communicators can work towards social justice. When considering access, a communicator must understand their audience, and this understanding often comes through collaboration. This text keeps coming back to the importance of knowing and centering the audience because technical communicators must consider whether the information they share is accessible to their specific audience. This work can be particularly challenging when technical communicators work with an intercultural audience because they must consider the best way to partner with a particular community in a way that empowers their reader and avoids relying on stereotypes.

So often, the work of technical communicators is intercultural. Technical communicators often collaborate with or communicate with writers, researchers, and users across cultural and linguistic boundaries. Part of working towards diversity, equity, and inclusion in technical communication means effectively collaborating with multilingual and multicultural or international communicators. Part of this work includes listening, reflecting on how our own cultural and linguistic lenses are formed and how they filter information, and knowing when to defer to others.

Understanding culture

When asked to speak about how diversity, equity, and inclusion factor into their work, members of the technical communication advisory board for the Department of Writing Studies at the University of Minnesota stressed that they are always working with and for their audience, and as such they must be responsive to their audience’s cultures. They note that culture is a nuanced, layered concept, and as such intercultural and cross-cultural communication can mean many things. For example, consider an organization like Target, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Technical and professional communicators working at Target need to learn and respond to the organizational culture of Target, likely set by leadership and understood among employees. There is a broader culture of Minneapolis, and then of Minnesota, of the upper midwest, and so on. Finally, Target is an international organization with storefronts across the United States and online clients, partners, and costumers across the world. A professional or technical communicator must understand and work with these diverse and fluctuating cultures when creating content for specific groups.

So, if culture is such a broad concept, then how can we address it? Again, our advisory board of professional technical communicators stress the importance of understanding and communicating with your specific, target audience.

Within these cultural groups mentioned above (say, the culture of Minneapolis), there are cultural differences among these individuals, as well: not all folks who live and work in Minneapolis are part of the same culture, and with various cultures come different communication styles and expectations. Technical communicators need to consider the cross sections and the heterogeneous nature of cultures and understand how to communicate with audiences in a way that makes information accessible and that empowers them to make decisions or take action.

Localization and translation

One way to address writing for an international or intercultural audience is through localization. Localization means tailoring your message to your audience’s specific cultural expectations, context, use of language and symbols, etc. Localization, for it to be useful and successful, must actually understand the cultural context of the audience. Some things to consider: culture is never static, and cultural considerations should always be bound by context.

Viewing culture as static, or ignoring specific context of an audience and situation, are extremely problematic understandings of intercultural communication and can often lead to stereotyping, rather than tailoring information for a specific audience. When you work to translate information for a specific audience, you need to consider not only the larger context but the more specific one, too. For example, if you need to translate information from English into Spanish for Spanish speaking members of your neighborhood in Minneapolis, you are not only moving from English to Spanish, but you are considering the context and needs of a specific community. Consider how you might do things differently if you were to translate that same information for a Spanish speaking community in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. If you only consider language and culture as a static, homogenous thing–such as a culture of “folks who speak Spanish”–then you will likely rely on stereotypes and broad assumptions or generalizations. In other words, you are not really doing the work of localizing information for a specific audience. You are, instead, letting one aspect of a culture–language spoken–dominate all decisions you make as a communicator.

A better way to approach such a task would be to consider not only a general language–like, English or Spanish–but consider how that language is used locally within a community. What are the important cultural considerations to keep in mind when you develop content for this community? What are some cultural touchstones, like images or terms or landmarks, that the audience would understand and appreciate? What can you learn about this specific audience, their needs, their expectations, and how they might interact with this information? What barriers exist currently and how can you remove these barriers or address them so that this audience can access this information?

As discussed in Section 2.2, healthcare is one area where it’s easy to understand the importance of equitable access to clear and accurate information. Healthcare providers often work with intercultural audiences; doctors and nurses work daily to communicate diagnoses and treatment options to patients from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Dr. Erin Blackwell, a DNP working in emergency medicine articulates the importance of localization and of avoiding stereotypes and generalizations when communicating across cultures:

Interpreters vs. translator.  A translator is putting information into Google translate and presenting the result to a patient in their native language.  This results in important information and cultural connotations being lost.  In the medical field, a medically trained interpreter is vital.  We rely heavily on our interpreters to help patients convey their concerns and to bridge the cultural gap between patient and provider communication needs.  There is a clear benefit of an in-person interpreter from the same culture or community as the patient.  A strong relationship between medical staff and interpreters creates space for the interpreter to not only translate spoken words but also interject cultural concerns of the patient that could otherwise lead to adverse health outcomes.

Avoiding assumptions and generalizations.  One of the classic shortfalls in medical education is medical textbooks with photos of primarily white patients as learning examples.  Ignoring the difference in presentation of symptoms on different colored skin leads to misdiagnosis and perpetuates the idea of “color-blindness” as equity.

–Erin Blackwell, DNP, APRN, C-PNP, Children’s Minnesota Hospital, Twin Cities

Working with your intended audience and collaborating across cultures is the best way to tailor content. Collaborating, continually gathering feedback, and revising texts are key components to intercultural or communication. Culture and language usage can be incredibly nuanced, and technical communicators must know when to reach out to cultural liaisons and translators, just as they collaborate with subject matter experts.

As you continue to learn about and practice intercultural communication, keep in mind that listening to and collaborating with your target audience. Technical communicators must be open to feedback and know how to learn about and work with members of a specific culture. Avoid tailoring content for a target audience in a way that relies on stereotypes or viewing culture as homogenous.