Equality, diversity and inclusion update
The EDI working group report on ITI's progress with ensuring ITI is a welcoming organisation regardless ofbackground, identity or circumstances.
Background
In mid-2020, following a Board meeting discussion in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, an Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) working group was formed to discuss how ITI could become a more inclusive institute. While ITI is by no means discriminatory, its membership is predominantly white and European. Engaging with a wider range of people would clearly bring benefits to the organisation.
EDI working group
The initial working group consisted of Carmen Swanwick-Roa, Jakub Sachaczuk and Marian Dougan. Jakub left the Board in 2022 but agreed to remain in the working group as its “statistics guru”. The group initially met about once a month and soon realised that more information was needed to understand ITI’s current situation and how best to establish and achieve its EDI goals.
We also realised that the scope of the project needed to cover not just ethnic diversity but also the challenges facing current and potential members, such as disability, income, gender and caring commitments. Recognising that we had very little expertise in this area we drew on resources provided by the EDI Special Interest Group of the Professional Associations Research Network (PARN), including webinars and guidance in areas such as data-gathering, benchmarking of progress, a framework for action and more.
Membership survey
To gather membership data and so establish a baseline, we developed and conducted a survey with questions on areas such as ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, disability and income. The survey was beta-tested with the Board in 2021 and distributed among the wider membership in 2022. Around 20% of members responded, with their comments in the free text fields providing useful insights into the obstacles they faced to engagement with ITI and its services and events.
An article reporting the key results of the survey was published in the September-October 2022 issue of the ITI Bulletin. We initially intended to follow this up with one or two shorter articles focusing on specific areas of EDI, but so far have not done so. The article included a call for interest in joining the working group, to which Nick Rosenthal and Dean Evans responded. Re-running the survey every few years would be worthwhile in order to track whether our actions are having a measurable impact.
Our objectives
Our aim is that the EDI working group will support the Board to:
- Examine how to respond to the calls from many members for a stronger focus on EDI and a more diverse and inclusive ITI.
- Expand our scope to reach members of the wider translation and interpreting community whose perceptions regarding diversity, costs and accessibility might be discouraging them from joining ITI.
- Reach members of the translation and interpreting community who are not even aware of ITI.
- Ensure ITI is keeping up with the increased focus on EDI in similar professional organisations.
- Raise standards across the profession by encouraging ITI membership and professional development among translators and interpreters who may not fit the dominant profile of an ITI member (female, white, middle-class, highly educated).
- Identify obstacles preventing current ITI members from engaging in ITI’s activities, with a view to increasing participation
Current situation and next steps
We have discussed how to use the survey data – especially the invaluable information gathered through the free-text boxes – to make improvements in areas such as the accessibility of ITI events. We have identified areas where ITI is already performing well, plus some short and longer-term goals for further improvement.
However, this has been a slow process and progress has slowed further in recent months. Given their work and personal commitments, the current members of the working group have not been able to devote as much time to the project as they feel that it needs.
ITI will soon have a new Chief Executive, who will likely have their own priorities and experience regarding EDI issues. One priority is likely to be increasing membership numbers, including through outreach to translators and interpreters (and potential/budding ones) who do not yet see ITI as their professional home. We hope that our EDI work will help achieve that goal.
