Our Communications and Marketing Manager, Alice Davis, has recently created new guidance on inclusive language for staff and volunteers at Devon Community Foundation. We are committed to inclusivity and the language we use plays a very important role in that – it can promote acceptance and respect, helping to shift attitudes, or it can exclude by reinforcing harmful misconceptions and stereotypes. In this blog post Alice shares how our new guidance was developed.
As someone who works with words every day I know how powerful they can be. I also know that words can be highly emotive, becoming charged with layers of meaning and subtext that are not always apparent on the surface. And to complicate matters further, there is often no “right” or “wrong” – within different communities individuals will have their own preferences about how they describe themselves and their experiences, and this may change over time. It can feel like very difficult terrain to navigate, leaving people nervous to say anything at all for fear of making a mistake.
It was with all of this in mind that I began the process of developing some inclusive language guidance to be used by Devon Community Foundation staff and trustees.
Helpfully, the Directory of Social Change (DSC) had recently published its own Language Guidance: Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, in September 2024. This document is aimed at everyone in the charity sector who would like some suggestions and advice about inclusive language. It is well worth a look if you are starting your own process of reviewing your organisation’s language.
While the DSC guidance was a useful starting point, it was very important to me that our own guidance reflected the groups and communities that we’re here to support. I put an open call to take part in an online language review session in our newsletter and on social media, and also sent out some direct invitations to groups working with different communities.
I confess that I was a little nervous going into this process as I was aware that there was the potential for it to feel challenging and uncomfortable, both for me and for those attending the sessions. But I was reassured by the very positive responses I received. One said: “This is a great and vital conversation as language matters so much.” Another said: “Having the courage to ask the question is in itself such an important part of inclusive practice.”
In the discussions themselves everyone was completely respectful, sharing their own knowledge and views and listening to others with curiosity and compassion. It certainly felt to me like a safe and supportive space to ask questions and I hope it did for others too.
Eight groups generously gave their time, either joining one of the online sessions or contributing their thoughts via email. We had some very interesting discussions – it was notable that while there was a general consensus around some words and phrases, with many it was much less clear cut. And the groups we spoke to did not always agree with the guidance in the DSC document.
My colleagues and I took extensive notes during the discussions and I spent some time going through these, referring back to the DSC guidance, reading further articles and guidance, and consulting with colleagues internally to produce a final document that best reflects our approach to inclusive language. This is by no means intended to be definitive or exhaustive. As I mentioned earlier, it would be almost impossible to create a rigid list of “correct” and “incorrect” language – the context, personal preference and constantly evolving public debate and landscape all need to be taken into account.
Hopefully, however, it provides some useful suggestions and pointers so that as an organisation we can feel more confident about actively using language that is inclusive. And it includes a commitment to regularly review this guidance, to welcome feedback and to learn from any mistakes we make.
We will be using this guidance document internally but we also wanted to make it publicly available, so others can borrow from or adapt it, and also hold us to account.
If you have any questions or comments about our guidance I would be very pleased to hear from you. You can contact me at adavis@devoncf.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn.
