Participatory Localization: A Social Justice Approach to Navigating Unenfranchised/Disenfranchised Cultural Sites

A Dialogue with Medical Interpreters About Rhetoric, Culture, and Language

“…Scholars in technical communication, the rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM), and related fields continue to work closely with healthcare practitioners to develop strategies that can improve language accessibility in healthcare contexts (Agboka, 2013;Batova, 2010;Ding, 2014;Rose et al, 2017). For example, researchers continue to point to the need for translating and localizing (Sun, 2012) tools and technologies for linguistically and ethnically diverse patients, while also addressing accessibility concerns for patients with various (dis)abilities.…”

“…Scholars have presented frameworks such as "patient experience design (PXD)" (Meloncon, 2017), "international patient experience design (I-PXD)" (St.Amant, 2017), and "communitybased user-experience design" (Rose et al, 2017) to help practitioners facilitate multilingual and cross-cultural healthcare interactions. Alongside this work, researchers like Godwin Agboka (2013) continue to advocate for the need to protect and value the expertise and experiences of linguistically and ethnically diverse users, particularly when working within "unenfranchised/ disenfranchised cultural sites" (p. 298). Rather than conducting research about marginalized communities (e.g., communities of color who identify with heritage languages other than English), scholars like Agboka (2013) and Rose et al (2017) continue to point to the need to conduct research with and for the communities that we seek to support as rhetoricians interested in issues of access, accessibility, and equity.…”

Race and the Workplace

“…scholars. Collectively, our contributors take up Savage and Scott's work and put it into conversation with-and thus contribute to and clear paths in additional areas of-technical communication scholarship, including but not limited to: intercultural and international communication (Barnum and Huilin 2006; Ding 2009; St. Germaine-Madison 2006; Sun 2006, 2012), race and ethnicity studies (Evia and Patriarca 2012; Haas 2012; Johnson, Pimentel, and Pimentel 2008; Williams 2006; Williams and Pimentel 2014), diversity and technical communication programming and curriculum design (Savage and Mattson 2011; Savage and Matveeva 2011), gender and feminist studies (E. J. Flynn 1997;Frost 2013;Koerber 2000), postcolonial and globalization studies(Agboka 2013;Bokor 2011;Jeyaraj 2004), disability rhetorics(Palmeri 2006;Smyser-Fauble 2012;Walters 2010;Wilson 2000), and environmental rhetorics and risk communication(Blythe, Grabill, and Riley 2008;Bowdon 2004;Evia and Patriarca 2012;Grabill and Simmons 1998;Sauer 2003;Simmons and Grabill 2007;Youngblood 2011).…”

Access, oppression, and social (in)justice in epidemic control: Race, profession, and communication in SARS outbreaks in Canada and Singapore

“…The "macro-ethical, systemic focus" afforded by social justice provides professional communication researchers with "language and a conceptual framework" to examine societal and policy applications of research findings (Leydens, 2012, p. (Leydens, 2012). Professional communication research, however, offers great potential to inform efforts to promote social justice, because of its concerns about public interest in policy making processes (Ding, 2013;2014b;Grabill & Simmons, 1998;Scott, 2003), civic engagement (Scott, 2009;Walton, 2013;), advocacy and activism (Agboka, 2013;Jones, 2012), and service learning (Crabtree & Sapp, 2005). While little scholarship in professional communication uses social justice as an explicit construct, Walton and Jones (2013) identified "the juncture of social justice, complex contexts, and communication" as a promising site for productive research and called for careful methodological, pedagogical, and critical work.…”