RESOURCES

HERE ARE TWO RESOURCES you can use moving forward. The Suggested Substitutions can help you move from problematic words and phrases to more inclusive substitutes. And if you’re somebody who produces communications, you can use the Inclusion Checklist Template to create your own inclusion checklists. These checklists can be used at any point in production, from planning to writing to copy editing, to make sure that your texts and scripts are as inclusive as possible.

SUGGESTED SUBSTITUTIONS

In the introduction to this book, I said that I wished I could just give you a list of bad words and good words, but that language was too complicated.

But now that you’ve read the book (hopefully!) and have learned the Six Principles of Inclusive Language, you can make use of a Suggested Substitutions guide. The words in this guide are organized in alphabetical order, which should make it easy to check when you are thinking about using a particular word or phrase and want to see if it’s problematic. You can also use the Suggested Substitutions guide when you already know a word is problematic but aren’t quite sure of what a good inclusive alternative might be.

This reference list includes some of the most common examples of problematic language in American English and recommendations for inclusive language substitutes that were appropriate in 2023. I’ve included words here that I didn’t have space to discuss in the main text of the book—for the most part, these words don’t reflect reality or show respect. The list includes problematic uses of ethnic names (for example, gypsy and welsh on a bet); words for meaningful objects and activities that are used inappropriately by people who aren’t in-group (for example, powwow and low man on the totem pole); and ableist language (for example, blind spot and fall on deaf ears). The list also includes current best practices for talking about disabled people and disabilities.

This list is not evergreen! It is guaranteed to change. The list of problematic words will expand, and some of the currently acceptable substitutes will change. In addition, the words in the Inclusive column are not exhaustive—you may come up with your own, better alternative for a given context.

Bonus Activity! If you want to strengthen your inclusive language muscles, figure out which Principles of Inclusive Language are being violated by the words and phrases in the Problematic column and which dimensions of human identity are involved. It will often be more than just one principle.

INCLUSION CHECKLIST TEMPLATE

If you’re planning out a communication event (like a press release, video, ad campaign, company-wide email, or speech), you can use an inclusion checklist to think through your audience and their experiences. This will make it easier to apply the Six Principles of Inclusive Language.

The following is a starter template for an inclusion checklist that you can customize for your own communication needs. As you get more practice applying inclusion checklists to your work, you’ll be able to create more streamlined versions for each communication event you’re preparing—and fill in some of the specific identities you want to make sure you’re keeping in mind.

No matter how streamlined your checklist gets, you’ll always want to monitor your pronoun use for whatever communications you’re creating. You can use your checklist to help you map out the pronoun circles for each time you use pronouns like you, we, us, everyone, and everybody. (Information and exercises on how to map out pronoun circles are found in Chapter 5.) In other words, if you’re using words like everybody, you can use the checklist to make sure you’re actually including everyone in your audience—and if you’re not, change your language accordingly.

For example, if you’ve written “We wish everybody a Happy Father’s Day” and then go through the checklist, the Family and Parental Status questions should remind you that not everybody was raised by a father, and that some people come from abusive family situations and don’t want to celebrate their parents. After this reminder, you might remove the everybody from your sentence, and rephase it to begin, “For those of you celebrating Father’s Day this Sunday . . . ” By using the checklist, you can avoid common violations of the Principles of Inclusive Language, and instead reflect reality, draw people in, incorporate other perspectives, and recognize pain points.

Who Is in My Audience?

CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIVIDUALS

1. What races and ethnicities are the people in my audience?

a. Am I considering the perspectives, histories, experiences, and pain points of all the racial and ethnic groups in my audience?

b. Is my language avoiding the erasure of a particular race or ethnicity, such as indigenous people?

c. Am I using the most up-to-date terminology for the group(s) I’m writing about? Have I checked in with the person I’m profiling and asked what terminology they prefer?

2. What genders are the people in my audience?

a. Am I avoiding problematic language that presents gender as a binary?

b. Am I using the correct pronouns to refer to people?

c. Am I using people’s preferred honorifics?

d. Am I referring to people’s gender using their preferred terminology?

e. Am I avoiding using gender-specific language that erases people, such as using he or mankind as if it represents everyone in my audience?

f. Am I quoting people in a gender-balanced way? Or are men significantly overrepresented?

g. Am I closing the respect gap? Or are only men given titles like Dr. and Mr. while other people are presented using just their first name?

h. Am I avoiding talking about women’s male partners and children when it isn’t relevant?

i. Am I presenting accomplishments by people of different genders in the same quantity and in a similar way?

3. What are the sexual orientations of people in my audience?

a. Am I avoiding heteronormative language that suggests that everyone is heterosexual?

b. Am I avoiding erasing anyone or forgetting about pain points?

c. Am I using people’s preferred identity terms for sexual orientation?

4. What are the physical abilities and disabilities of the people in my audience?

a. Will my communications be accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing? Blind or otherwise visually impaired?

b. For events, are my communications giving an accurate representation of the physical accessibility of the space and event?

c. Am I using preferred disability terminology for my audience members or people who are being quoted or described?

d. Am I avoiding erasing anyone in the disabled community and remembering pain points?

e. Am I avoiding ableist language, like blind leading the blind?

f. Am I avoiding language that suggests lowered expectations of disabled people or that has the characteristics of inspiration porn?

5. What is the neurodiversity of the people in my audience?

a. Am I avoiding language that suggests that everyone is neurotypical?

b. Am I talking about language and life experiences in ways that include autistic people? Am I presenting autistic forms of communication (such as being more literal) as equally valid?

c. Am I avoiding pain points for neurodivergent people? For example, have I avoided loosely using terms such as ADD, ADHD, OCD, and Tourette’s?

6. What are the ages of my audience members?

a. Am I using language that is respectful of older people and their capabilities?

b. Am I respecting the bodily autonomy and capacities of children?

7. What are the weights of my audience members?

a. Am I avoiding erasure and remembering people of different sizes?

b. Am I using respectful language to refer to larger and smaller people?

SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS

1. What are the geographic locations of people in my audience?

a. Am I including different time zones?

b. Am I avoiding language that assumes everyone is in my country?

c. Am I using language that includes both northern and southern hemispheres (when relevant)?

2. What are the languages and dialects of people in my audience?

a. Am I avoiding language that suggests that everyone is monolingual?

b. Am I avoiding language that isn’t respectful of “mixed” varieties like Spanglish or Konglish?

c. Am I using language that is respectful of nonstandard language varieties (like African American English)?

d. Am I using language that is respectful of nonstandard accents?

e. When I talk about language, am I including sign languages?

3. What are the countries of origin and immigrant status for people in my audience?

a. Am I avoiding language that suggests that everyone was born in my country?

b. Am I using respectful language for people who have immigrated to my country, regardless of documentation status?

c. Am I including indigenous people in my history? In my present-day descriptions?

4. What are the socioeconomic classes and income levels for people in my audience?

a. Am I using language that represents all the socioeconomic classes of audience members and takes into account their perspectives and pain points?

b. Am I using language that represents the range of incomes and buying capacities for people in my audience?

5. What are the educational backgrounds of people in my audience? Am I using language that takes into account that not everyone has finished high school or attended a four-year college?

6. What are the religions of people in my audience?

a. Am I avoiding language that centers Christianity or assumes that everyone is Christian? (Or another dominant religion?)

b. Am I incorporating the perspectives of and avoiding pain points for audience members of all relevant religions?

7. What is the marital status of people in my audience?

a. Am I avoiding language that presents all marriages as heterosexual?

b. Am I including people with different marital statuses and incorporating their perspectives?

8. What is the parental status and family status of people in my audience?

a. Am I avoiding language that suggests that everyone of a certain age is a parent?

b. Am I avoiding language that suggests that everyone has been or is being raised by one male and one female parent?

c. Am I avoiding language that assumes that family households are made up of nuclear families?

d. Am I using language that takes into account that some people come from abusive family situations?

e. Am I using language that includes the perspectives and experiences of people raised in foster care and people who were adopted as children?

9. What are the political affiliations of the people in my audience? Am I using language that includes the perspectives and experiences of all audience members?

10. What is the military experience of people in my audience? Am I using language that incorporates the experience and perspectives of veterans?