Lost in Translation: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Linguistic Inaccessibility in HCI
2025. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’25).
Eszter Vigh, Ellen Weir, Grace Stangroome, Alex Tcherdakoff, Yelu Gu, Oussama Metatla, Mamoru Watanabe, René Schäfer, Sophie Hahn, Konrad Mikolaj Krawczyk, Marcela Godoy, Rodolfo Cossovich, Randy Morin, Kristine Dreaver-Charles, Marguerite Koole & Frank Lewis.
This paper examines linguistic and cultural diversity in Human-Computer Interaction through multilingual experiences across various native languages, including Hungarian, Japanese, Cree, German, Welsh, Spanish, Mandarin, French, Polish, and Arabic. Each contribution reveals unique challenges in translation, usability, and cultural nuance within digital interfaces, with linguistic barriers ranging from issues with non-Latin characters to loss of contextual meaning and limited localisation options. These sections highlight the limitations of current design practices, which often prioritise English-centric frameworks that fail to accommodate diverse language structures and cultural nuances. By capturing these varied perspectives, this paper underscores the need for inclusive, cross-lingual design practices that address global usability challenges. It contributes to the development of more accessible and culturally sensitive digital environments, fostering an HCI approach that values linguistic diversity and cultural specificity.
Citation
Vigh, E., Weir, E., Tcherdakoff, N. A. P., Stangroome, G. J., Gu, Y., Metatla, O., … others. (2025). Lost in translation: a cross-cultural examination of linguistic inaccessibility in hci. Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1–16).
BibTeX
@inproceedings{vigh2025lost, title={Lost in translation: A cross-cultural examination of linguistic inaccessibility in hci}, author={Vigh, Eszter and Weir, Ellen and Tcherdakoff, Nathalie Alexandra Penglin and Stangroome, Grace Jane and Gu, Yelu and Metatla, Oussama and Watanabe, Mamoru and Sch{\"a}fer, Ren{\'e} and Hahn, Sophie and Krawczyk, Konrad Mikolaj and others}, booktitle={Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, pages={1--16}, year={2025} }