At Aplomb, our approach to diversity and inclusion encompasses the world. This is not surprising as the work we do is all about enabling clear communication and giving people a voice in any language. We don’t just translate into English. We translate into and from over 120 languages. This means we are privileged to represent speakers of some of the rarest languages in the world. And, with over 7,000 languages in use, we have great scope to add new translators to our professional list every day. Alarmingly, approximately 40% of languages are now endangered, and can claim less than 1,000 speakers. Aplomb views translation and interpreting as our opportunity to help people keep their languages alive. Access services aren’t just about eyesight and hearing. Access services are about communication. It’s all about being able to use language so we can communicate with one another effectively and clearly to lead full lives, wherever we live.
If you can’t hear, you can’t communicate properly and you are isolated. Think about your first experience amidst people speaking a language you didn’t know. Imagine living like that all the time? It’s a similar experience for some with hearing loss. It’s like the world is speaking a foreign language and you just can’t seem to understand.
Over 5% of the world’s population – or 430 million people – require rehabilitation to address their ‘disabling’ hearing loss (432 million adults and 34 million children).
- An estimated 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss and at least 700 million will require hearing rehabilitation by 2050. Deafness and hearing loss (who.int)
At Aplomb, we understand the importance hearing makes to communication and we will work with you to ensure your projects can reach as many people in the world as possible. From English, the world’s most spoken language, to Njerep, classified as a critically endangered language by UNESCO and one of the rarest languages in the world, we think everyone deserves to be able to communicate in their native tongue – even if like Njerep, only six people, in the Somié village on the Nigeria-Cameroon border still speak it.
Global Vision
As translators and linguists, eyesight is one of those amazing tools we use every day at Aplomb. We forget sometimes how enriched our world is through sight.
An estimated 2.2 billion people live with a vision impairment of some type globally.
237 Million people are believed to have moderate or severe distance vision impairment in 2020. 55% are women and 89% live in low and middle-income countries.
- 39 Million people are estimated to be blind globally in 2020. This is projected to increase to 115 million by 2050. Visual Impairment & Blindness Global Data & Statistics | LESH (lasereyesurgeryhub.co.uk)
Statistical projections are for global hearing and eyesight loss to increase over the coming decades. Every language can be written down in some form of transcription whether as depictive characters, phonetic sounds, or something in between. Yet, as speakers of rare languages disappear from the Earth, not all languages’ spoken formats will be able to be reproduced. For some, with blindness, their language will be silenced.
Beyond the “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” statistics, the “Can’t See, Can’t Hear, Can’t Communicate” dilemma is the real challenge access services look to address. Can’t Read, Won’t Buy – B2C (csa-research.com)
So, when we say Aplomb can help you ensure that your content is accessible to the widest possible audience, by providing audio description for the visually impaired and SDH subtitling for the hard-of-hearing, in all languages, its not just at the push of a button. Bespoke projects are our chance to excel and if you have an interesting language project, we’d love to help. Our mission is to help everyone to have access to language communication and sight and hearing are the key tools for our success.
Let us help you communicate with Aplomb.
