Language Accessibility Measures at ICCB 2025
Our Philosophy
English will no doubt be the common language at ICCB 2025. However, we are aware that conservation is practised and communicated in many languages other than English. For this reason, we aim to foster the participation of individuals from all linguistic backgrounds.
Attending an international conference can be intimidating, especially for those whose first language is not English. For example, a recent study showed that 30% and 50% of early-career researchers in environmental sciences who are non-native English speakers often or always decide not to attend an international conference and avoid oral presentations due to language barriers, respectively.
We have therefore established the Language Accessibility Sub-committee to organise, lead, and facilitate initiatives to reduce language barriers for participants before and during the conference as much as possible and encourage people with diverse linguistic backgrounds to participate in ICCB 2025.
Our ultimate goal is to (i) increase the linguistic and cultural diversity of ICCB 2025 participants, and (ii) facilitate the exchange of diverse ideas, knowledge, experience, and expertise on biodiversity conservation among participants. We envision a scientific community that exchanges knowledge and research, regardless of who produced it, where it was produced, or in what language it is communicated. We believe that achieving this goal will help us better address conservation challenges around the world.
Our Initiatives
1. Understanding the most needed types of support to reduce language barriers
We first organised a brainstorming session with a diverse group of people to come up with ideas for the type of support we can provide before and during ICCB 2025. We then conducted a global online survey of SCB members, past ICCB participants, and potential ICCB participants to understand their views on different types of support for non-native English speakers. The survey was open between 26th March and 19th April 2024. A total of 274 people with 45 nationalities, who are collectively native speakers of at least 38 non-English languages, participated in the survey.
We found that 29.2% and 34.2% of the survey participants answered that providing language accessibility measures is “Very important” or “Important” to their decision to attend ICCB 2025 and give an oral presentation at ICCB 2025, respectively. The top five types of support (based on the proportion of “Extremely helpful” and “Very helpful” responses)” were:
1. Provide live English captions for all oral presentations (70.18%),
2. Multilingual volunteers available during the conference (68.75%),
3. Implement guidelines for linguistically inclusive presentations (66.96%),
4. Establish a mentoring scheme to find a mentor who helps with presentation preparation (66.13%),
5. Multilingual volunteers at each session to help with Q&A (64.78%).
We used the survey results (see here for full results) to prioritise the type of support to be provided before and during the conference.
2. Language accessibility in proposal/abstract submission
- Writefull Revise: An AI-based English editing service (Writefull Revise) is available for free on the abstract submission page for anyone submitting an abstract. Simply upload your document to Writefull Revise, and download your document with Track Changes to instantly revise your text in Word.
- No rejection for poor language: The ICCB 2025 Scientific Subcommittee has decided to accept all submitted talk/poster abstracts with suitable content and scientific rigour on a first-come, first-served basis until the capacity limit is reached. No talk/poster abstract will be rejected for poor language. Only abstracts where key ideas cannot be understood will be returned to authors for revision and can be resubmitted.
- Linguistically-inclusive review guidelines: We have implemented linguistically-inclusive guidelines for reviewers of session proposals (i.e., symposia, forums, workshops and training courses) and talk/poster abstracts to follow when evaluating proposals/abstracts. The guidelines (i) stress that reviewers should focus on the merit, significance and impact of the submission rather than on language proficiency, and (ii) instruct reviewers to be more specific, civil, and less disparaging when providing feedback on language.
3. Language accessibility in presentations
- Mentorship program: This program aims to foster a collaborative learning environment between mentors and mentees to help mentees feel comfortable and confident in delivering their presentations in English. Mentees will receive support from mentors in structuring their presentations, improving visual design, use of English language, and preparing for their presentations. Mentors will develop their leadership skills in guiding others effectively. Please note that the implementation of this program is still subject to the availability of mentors. More details will be available here soon.
- Writefull Premium service: We offer free two-month subscription of the full Writefull Premium service to ICCB 2025 participants (up to 1,500 participants, subscription period April-June 2025). Participants can use the service to proofread text in their presentations or for any other purpose.
Watch this space for more initiatives as they are confirmed.