Everything Counts: Making a Difference with Inclusive Words

How would you feel if your workplace uses everyday language which triggers, offends, or otherwise makes you feel unwelcome? Do uncomfortable terminology affect the level of trust within your team and colleagues? And do you wonder why we don't do anything about problematic language in professional workplaces? In light of anti-racism movement of 2020, many corporations and organizations took action to focus inward and look at systemic and institutionalized racism within their entities. The Information Technology Group at Oregon Health & Science University was no exception, as we took action on oppressive, discriminatory, and exclusionary terminologies which we encountered in IT. Our efforts included going beyond changing the language used in documentation: we also educated our colleagues and implored our vendors to update their documents when we found problematic language.