OK. I'm gonna go ahead and get started. My name is Alyssa.I use the pronouns, she and her and I do most of my work as a senior staff technical editor at an enterprise software company called Splunk for those of you who can't or don't see me on your screen. I am a 40 something white woman. I have long blonde hair parted on the side, blue eyes and I'm wearing a black top. I'm speaking to you today from San Francisco, California. And I'd like to just take a second to acknowledge that the land from which I'm speaking is the traditional territory of the Aloni people of the San Francisco Peninsula. And as a reminder, the process of colonization is ongoing and it still adversely affects the indigenous people of the Bay area. I have a number of links in my presentation to style guide pages, downloads outside resources and, and more so if you'd like to follow along and open the pages at your discretion, I've left a copy of this presentation at bitly slash words means stuff that link is better if you're viewing from a desktop computer or if you prefer to check things on mobile.

The QR code is a smaller scale suit suitable for a smaller screen, but it's the same information in both places. So I'll give you a second to open the link of your choice. Otherwise, I do believe the conference shares the recording in my slides after the week wraps up and you can take a look then. So I am honored to talk with you today about my experiences developing guidance and putting into practice inclusive and unbiased communications. Since joining Splunk, I've published a public facing style guide with technical writing rules and guidelines that gets used by writers, designers, engineers and others across the technology industry and by maintaining a style guide. I see firsthand just how much words and language are always evolving.

In the last couple of years, I've shaped guidance around removing exclusionary and biased language in the technology industry. Technology has deep rooted divisive disparaging and racist terms. And I'm grateful to play a role in affecting change as a result of social uprisings that are bringing more and more awareness to the power of language. As a result, my experience comes from technology and technical documentation specifically. So my talk today has that lens, although of course inclusive language, um it really applies everywhere. So today we're going to develop a framework that you can use to help reduce harm and communications. And here are the things we're going to cover today. First, we'll briefly go over why language matters. Then we'll ask ourselves some questions to determine whether a term shows bias. Next, we'll rank order the need to replace terminology based on the severity of harm. And finally, we will locate outside resources who can help.

If you're a team of one, you otherwise feel like you work in a silo or you just want someone to bounce ideas off of. So we all understand that of the, the power of innovation and how technology transforms the world that we live in. But only recently have we been made aware of the importance of language and communication, especially in technology. Language is the foundation of human connections. It's through language that we express thoughts and feelings and ideas. It's how we connect with one another, how we build relationships, how we share knowledge. So when we think about the vast array of human differences, we all play a role in making sure that everyone is on the same playing field. Language is a powerful means of interaction. And it's one of the most important tools that we have inclusion is the intent of individuals or systems to actively include and support the ray array of human differences to create a sense of belonging, belonging, establishes trust and trust builds relationships, trust and respect are so important for everyone we interact with whether it's in documentation, in a product or even in face to face communications.

Because language is always evolving and very quickly. At times, I don't think we'll ever get to perfect on the topic of achieving inclusive language. But I really believe that the more we think about it, consider it strive toward inclusiveness and try to bring others in, we will always be in a better place. The intention of removing biased language is to reduce harm for the communities and to create safe spaces. On the following slides, I'll present some questions that you can ask yourself about a term. But above all, let harm reduction guide your decisions. When you finish answering the questions about a term, the more questions that you answer, yes or possibly, the more likely it is that that language in question needs to be replaced. So to determine whether a term shows unconscious bias or it harms a marginalized or underrepresented group, ask, does the word diminish the historical or current situation of others? Does the word place a positive or negative connotation on color race or people? Does the word imply otherness or exclude a group? Does the word harm degrade or insult anyone or any group? Whether it be mental, physical sexual function or cri criminal? Does the word imply elitism or a position of power?

Then these final questions are a little more general in nature. Does the language make you uncomfortable? Even if you can't quite articulate the reason? Why is the language working metaphorically? What are the implications behind that metaphor? Can the language be substituted for something clearer or more literal?

So there's a lot of nuance and complexity in the evolving English language. So if a word doesn't fit one of these questions and it makes you uncomfortable, don't use it. Likewise. If someone tells you that a word makes them uncomfortable, take their op opportunity, the, take an opportunity and listen to their opinion as an opportunity to learn. And just because the term isn't offensive to you, that doesn't mean that it isn't problematic for someone else.

We might think we know who our audience is and what we can get away with, but we don't know everyone's story and it's just not safe to assume. So again, the aim is to be aware of our own biases in writing and to reduce harm to communities after we've answered the previous questions and we've determined that we want to replace a word because it's causing harm to someone or to a community. We can rank the severity of that term into one of three orders of concern. So some changes are more surface level such as doing a find and replace and documentation or updating some customer facing U I text, but others are deeply embedded in code code bases and commands. So it might take a team to implement changes. You can use these orders of concern to help you determine how much involvement might be needed to make a change and to prioritize what to update first. So first order concerns are language where the harm is egregious overt and clearly problematic and should be replaced immediately. It might take a lot of effort from a number of teams to make that happen, especially if it's on the back end. So here are the criteria you can use to determine whether a word or a phrase is a first order of concern and it needs to go. Now, the term perpetuates bias or stereotypes in a manner that's harmful to any historically underrepresented group of people.

The term is overtly disparaging toward any person or any group. The term is overloaded, problematic or politically charged in the case of first order concerns, it's good to research whether a term refers to a group of people or is disparaging in other contexts, even if the language itself is etymologically neutral. So the examples on this slide and my following slides are by no means exhaustive, but instead I put them here to demonstrate the levels of concern. Um Again, many of my examples are viewed with technology as the lens, but the questions that we asked ourselves in the previous section might result in other words, also needing immediate replacement. So I won't go into the full historical background of these words. But um as a result of the questions we asked ourselves paired with research we do on etymology of the words and their usage. These are the terms that are not welcoming and they cannot be used casually in technical contexts. Second order concerns are a language that is problematic but with less definite impact and by less definite impact, I mean that it might not be outright disparaging like a first order of concern, but it has underlining meanings that stem from history, war genocide or gender.

These are words that you'll want to strongly consider replacing language that is unnecessarily violent, oppressive or elitist language that originates from a history of injustice, oppression or identity based discrimination, language that is culturally appropriated or language that is unnecessarily gendered.

So in the case of second order concerns, it's good to look into whether a phrase has militaristic connotations or it arises from a context of war, classism, segregation or gender. And these are a few examples of second order concern language which is again a language to strongly consider replacing. Um in these cases, the terms are unnecessarily violent, they relate back to war are culturally appropriated or are a term taken out of a historical context and placed somewhere else inappropriately. Third order concerns are a language that can use improvement but does no demonstrable harm.

So this language is idiomatic or understanding, it is limited to those in a particular culture or an in group. These terms are unclear or they use metaphor when a more precise term is available or the terms ascribe human traits to nonhuman objects. When categorizing third orders of concern, think about whether the term uses a literary device to communicate a point or if understanding a term is conditional on belonging to a certain group. Here are a couple examples of third order concerns which is language to replace where possible in these cases, using words associated with mental health or physical abilities is problematic because it perpetuates untrue stigmas. These terms are also colloquial in nature. There are clearer, more precise alternatives that all users can understand and relate to without feeling undermined. So I am fortunate to work at a company that has employee support groups, diverse team members and I have a supportive manager who's good at helping clear obstacles for me.

But I've also worked at places where I was the only editor and I was the one making language decisions and it was hard to know if what I was doing was right or wrong. So if you're in that ladder ladder category and you don't have support systems at work or you work solo or in a silo, there are resources to help you. And even if you do work at a company that has these systems in place, it's just always good to join in convers conversations and share your experiences and and learn from others. So the examples that I showed on the order of concerned slides were a very small sample of a larger collection that many sources have already identified for replacement in a technology context. Here are some of my favorite sources. So I'm biased when I tell you to refer to Splunk right? Unbiased documentation page because I had the heaviest hand in it. But it's got more terms to consider than I discussed here today. The inclusive naming initiative or in I is a community of volunteers mainly in the technology sector who have come together to try to abolish racist and demeaning terminology in the tech industry. Um I participate in the monthly meetings. I help do research.

Um I've come up with replacement terminology suggestions and I encourage everyone to join the University of Washington's inclusive language guide is quickly growing as one of my go to guides because it includes replacements as well as the rationale and history behind the language.

And I just like having that research uh and that background learning as I go and then Google's right, inclusive documentation and Microsoft's bias free communications are also excellent sources. So for help developing inclusive language outside of the tech industry, here are a couple sources that I also look to. Um I do use these for technology research too, but they're just a little more broad in scope. There's into its inclusive language, sorry into its inclusive content page, Atlassian, inclusive language guide and the responsible communication style guide, which is available in a number of formats including print and ebook. So if you're looking for help while you're in the throes of writing and you want some tools to help you keep inclusive language. Top of mind, I urge you to look at these resources, the Splunk style guide for the veil winter is a repository of rules ported from the Splunk style guide. It has rules for inclusive language device, agnostic language accessible language and so much more the veil can process docs in most markup languages such as markdown and ask you doc and it has a number, has a number of integrations with code editors.

Witi works is a writing assistant add on for inclusive language. It's really similar to grammarly but with a very specific lens and it works for Google Docs and Notion. And then there's the Woke Config Builder, which is a git lab project that you can use for detecting noninclusive language in source code. So these are just a couple that I know of. But if you have any others that you can, that you use, please share them with me, you can email me later or put them in the chat. And then I also understand that doing research and using tools doesn't always feel the most satisfying. Sometimes you wanna talk about things, you wanna converse with others and you wanna get more opinions. Um This is especially true if you work as a team of one or you don't feel you have the resources to get other opinions and perspectives. So the inclusive naming initiative, like I mentioned has a slack channel where you can get the full brain power of multiple perspectives and roles and backgrounds and levels of experience. There's also a Google group where you can start new discussions and you can chime in on ongoing conversations and there's also the monthly meeting that you can add agenda items to and talk it over with the group.

And then I'm also part of a linkedin group called Inclusive Language Advocates that has nearly 2000 members. And we are dedicated to gathering online to exchange knowledge and support each other and help each other use inclusive language. So I suggest checking that out. And again, if, if you have other resources that you use, I would love to know, please put them in the chat or share them with me personally. Um I would love to check them out and learn from others. So the final point of my talk is this even though I don't think we'll get to 100% perfect because language is always changing and sometimes really rapidly. I don't think that's an excuse to not check your bias at all times, question word choices and use this framework to open your mind and consider new perspectives. Make a checklist if you need to keep it on your desktop or download these tools to highlight ideas and concepts that you don't consider naturally. Think about who you're excluding whether it's a new or an experienced user, someone from another culture or religion, someone from a different age group or gender, recognize the responsibility we all have to fostering inclusive environments.

Remember that inclusive language prevents frustration and demeaning experiences, whether it's online in person, in documents or in a product, inclusive language builds trust in relationships and it makes people feel welcome, safe and valued and those are the best feelings that any of us can ask for.

So, thank you so much for caring about inclusive language and for attending my talk, you can feel free to connect with me on linkedin or head over to my website. Words meant stuff.com. Again, I would love to know what you're doing to foster inclusive language. If you have other resources that you refer to, please share them with me, I would love to know. So thank you again and uh enjoy the rest of your conference. Thanks Madeline.