Taking Up the Mantle: How Speech Scientists Can Fight Linguistic Discrimination

Purpose: This tutorial describes and analyzes the role of speech science in combating linguistic discrimination, that is, the unfair and unequal treatment of people based solely on the ways that they use spoken language. It describes three nonobvious cases of linguistic discrimination within speech science. Suggestions are provided for changes to the field of speech science to actively combat linguistic discrimination. This tutorial is written for a broad audience of scholars and practitioners, including undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and members of the general public. The tutorial emphasizes the need for speech science to think more broadly about what science encompasses, and the reciprocal interactions between scientific communities and society more broadly.