Gender Neutral Language and Healthcare Interpreting: Results of a National Survey

In March 2020, CCHI surveyed over 1,200 healthcare interpreters across 50+ languages about English gender-neutral terms. This presentation focuses on 871 Spanish interpreters from 21 countries. Rather than debating how gendered languages like Spanish should handle gender-neutral terminology, we examined how medical interpreters solve these linguistic challenges daily. For interpreters, this isn't theoretical—it's a regular professional challenge.

The survey explored familiarity with and solutions for common gender-neutral English terms: Anglicized Spanish terms converted to gender-neutral forms (LatinX vs. Latin American); inherently gender-neutral English terms (doctor, nurse, surgeon) requiring gender-appropriate Spanish forms; and third-person plural pronouns (they/them) used as gender-neutral singular pronouns. Beyond interpreting solutions, we examined interpreter attitudes toward incorporating gender-neutral English terms into Spanish. We will review demographics of the 871 Spanish interpreters and their responses, comparing results to US Latin-American/Hispanic population surveys (Pew Research Center) and Spanish gender-neutral terminology research (Fundeu Research), then present our conclusions.

ASL interpretation will be provided!

This webinar has been approved for CEU, 1 ATA CEP and 0.1 RID CEU*. CEUs are pending for 1 CCHI CE hour, 0.1 IMIA/NBCMI.

Certificates will be issued only to those viewing the live webinar. Certificate download instructions will be emailed to attendees 24-48 hours after the webinar has taken place.

*There is an additional $20 processing fee for RID CEUs. To process your RID CEUs, please email your certificate of attendance to our RID sponsor, Linguist Education Online, at admin@linguisteducationonline.com.