37.2263, FYI: Call for Chapters: Negotiating Intersections in Translation, Accessibility, and Inclusion

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2263. Mon Jul 06 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2263, FYI: Call for Chapters: Negotiating Intersections in Translation, Accessibility, and Inclusion

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Date: 03-Jul-2026
From: Simon Copet [simon.copet at ulb.be]
Subject: Call for Chapters: Negotiating Intersections in Translation, Accessibility, and Inclusion


A Franco-Belgian team is currently preparing an edited volume with the
working title Negotiating Intersections in Translation, Accessibility,
and Inclusion, and welcomes contributions for chapters.
This project grew out of the “Intersections: Translation,
accessibility, inclusion” conference held in Dijon and online in
October 2025 (https://tinyurl.com/intersections2025). The edited
volume will welcome chapters developed from material presented at the
conference but is framed not as a set of proceedings but as a
standalone volume with its own internal coherence. Preliminary
discussions with commissioning editors at Routledge have confirmed
that the formal proposal we are currently working on will be welcomed
once abstracts for chapters have been confirmed by the editors.
Call for papers
The contemporary landscape of global communication is undergoing a
paradigm shift, where the boundaries between linguistic mediation,
technological design, and social equity are increasingly porous. This
volume emerges from a shared observation: despite growing awareness,
accessibility is still too often treated as an afterthought rather
than a starting point in design and communication processes. Inspired
by but distinct from a conference of the same name held in October
2025, this edited volume seeks to formalize a critical re-examination
of accessibility, moving beyond its conceptualization as a mere
technical adjustment toward its recognition as an epistemic category,
as a professional activity and as a fundamental right. In an era where
digital environments are frequently designed around exclusionary
binaries, this project aims to map the intersections between Media
Accessibility Studies, Translation Studies and fields such as
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), User Experience (UX) Design, gender
studies and psychology.
At the heart of this inquiry lies the necessity of identifying why
these intersections have become sites of socio-technical negotiation.
We must ask: what can these disciplines long treated in isolation
learn from one another when the "user" becomes an active participant
or co-producer of meaning? This volume seeks to bridge gaps such as
those between descriptive Translation Studies and universalist and
post-universalist turns in Media Accessibility Studies, advancing
cognitive justice, or the right of diverse communities to produce and
access knowledge on their own terms. By examining the convergence of
digital and audiovisual media, we aim to determine whether the current
trajectory of multimodal integration serves as a transformative asset
for universal access or, conversely, as a sophisticated barrier that
deepens existing digital divides.
We invite researchers and practitioners to explore how multifaceted
identities, including but not limited to neurodiversity, gender
nonconformity, and sensory disabilities, interact with the structures
of our globalized information society. For instance, how does a
dyslexic user engage with subtitles in fast-paced audiovisual content,
or with different inclusive writing strategies? How are gender
identities represented (or erased) by machine translation and LLMs?
And what challenges do visually impaired users face when navigating
multimodal interfaces?
Furthermore, while inclusion often implies a socio-political mandate,
this call seeks to interrogate the ideological and methodological
faultlines that pull translation, accessibility, and inclusion in
subtly different directions. Crucially, we recognize that the
performative use of language itself constitutes a primary vector of
accessibility. The way linguistic structures are deployed is not
merely a vehicle for information, but a fundamental act of inclusion
or exclusion. In many real-world contexts, accessibility is still
approached as a checklist or a regulatory obligation, rather than as a
lived, social experience, and this gap between policy and practice
remains underexplored. Resolving these tensions also requires a
radical reimagining of our research methods and a commitment to
enhanced data accessibility.
We encourage contributions that critique the "human in the loop"
dynamic, particularly as generative AI and automated systems have
begun to play a role in mediating the relationship between language
and accessibility, operating as aids but also, potentially, as
barriers to communication. How do these technologies affect the
representation of marginalized groups, and can they be harnessed to
facilitate a more neutral or post-binary linguistic commons? While
these technologies promise efficiency and scalability, they also risk
reproducing existing biases or simplifying complex identities. This
volume will explore the relationship between accessibility and
intersectionality today, bridging the divide between the "onsite"
practitioner and the "online" scholar to foster a truly inclusive,
multidisciplinary dialogue.
Finally, we propose a reflection on the "cultural translation" of
accessibility itself. Bringing these perspectives together is not
straightforward. Inclusion is not a monolith but a localized practice
that must account for linguistic specificities and regional
socio-political contexts. This volume seeks to capture the friction
between global accessibility standards and the lived reality of
diverse communities. Whether through the lens of speculative fiction
as a pedagogical gateway or the use of sensory soundscapes in virtual
environments, we aim to highlight the creative and subversive ways in
which accessibility can be reclaimed. By fostering a dialogue that
brings together empirical study and theoretical critique, this
collection will serve as a definitive roadmap for a future where
communication is not just shared, but truly accessible in all its
complex intersections.
Chapter proposals are welcome on topics including but not limited to:
User-centred synergies
Accessibility in localization
Methodological faultlines
Accessibility in education
Data accessibility and research methods
Accessibility and gender Inclusion
Multimodal intersections
Technological interventions
Linguistic accessibility
Sensory translation
Cognitive and neuro-Inclusion
Practitioner insights
Submission timeline:
Prospective contributors are invited to submit an abstract of
approximately 500 words (excluding references), outlining the research
objectives, methodology, and clearly stating how the chapter would fit
the proposed themes and function as a contribution to a coherent
collection.
Full chapters of around 6,000 words (including references), will be
expected following the acceptance of the abstract and will be subject
to a double blind peer-review process.
Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 July
Notification of Acceptance: 20 August
Full Chapter Submission: 31 October (subject to timelines to be agreed
with the publisher).
Submissions, and any questions, should be directed jointly to
lucile_gibert at etu.ube.fr, simon.copet at ulb.be and will.noonan at ube.fr

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Cognitive Science
                     Language Acquisition
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics
                     Translation




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