Tuesday

Multilingual engagement in American observatories and other cultural institutions has long been treated as a supplemental service characterized by the narrow view that translation for exhibit/informational panels and other printed materials is enough. As the worldview of inclusivity and accessibility has morphed, the astronomical community has been slow to catch up. From 2018 to 2021, we examined the challenges and shortfalls impacting multilingual inclusivity in observatories as cultural institutions, the impact a lack of inclusivity can have on accessibility for and engagement with the public, and the cause-effect relationship this impact has on the public's understanding of and support for scientific endeavor. We used as a case study for our efforts the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory—a research observatory in Amado, Arizona—where both physical barriers and societal ones have impacted multilingual programming and public engagement for more than five decades, and will highlight three ways—taking programs to communities that cannot or do not visit the Observatory site, creating programming in Spanish first, and generating cooperative content that highlights native speakers and allows cultural context to overrule translation—in which the Observatory’s education and public outreach staff have strengthened and generated engagement from the ground up on a foundation of inclusivity. Our presentation will explain the difference between translations and subtitles as a tool for accessibility, and the development of programs and resources rooted in full inclusivity, where the recognition of cultural context makes all the difference. Finally we will encourage capacity-building and the development of community partnerships to facilitate the creation, growth and long term maintenance of multilingual programming that not only hears but also amplifies the voice of the community. A version of this case study has been accepted to, and will appear in, the museum industry’s peer-reviewed Theory & Practice publication in June 2021.