LWRS June 2020 Volume 1, Issue 1

Pardon My Acento
Speaking to this last point and thinking through what may contribute to when
and how I am disnamed, one reason disnaming may occur is because our web
platforms and applications can’t process diacritic marks. For example, I remember
feeling perplexed that the 2016 Symposium on Second Language Writing asked
registrants to “avoid diacritics” when entering names for name tags (Figure 3). Why
not? Was there a specific reason for those of us who use diacritics in our spellings to
be asked not to? I wanted to ask these questions, but I also felt I had the answer.
Actually, I’m confident that the volunteers (some of whom are friends and colleagues)
who organized that conference recognized the beauty and diversity of all the languages
and alphabets that came together in that space to discuss English language learning
and that they didn’t intentionally ask participants to “avoid diacritics” out of some
intolerance, but rather because the registration software was unable to properly
process diacritics. Actually, the acknowledgement that names with diacritical marks
might be entered on badges may demonstrate this awareness, and I have never seen
this restriction noted on any other online registration forms, before or after.
Technologies