Inclusive Language Guide

“Gay” and “queer” are often considered interchangeable, though using “gay” broadly can be seen as disregarding lesbian, bisexual, and other LGBTQIA+ identities. “Queer” is generally more inclusive of LGBTQIA+ people besides gay men, but “queer” was long used derisively, and sometimes still is, so use carefully. Many members of the LGBTQIA+ community embrace the word “queer” in an effort to reclaim it on their own terms.  

sexual orientation	sexual preference, lifestyle
straight, heterosexual (as adjectives)	traditional
gay, lesbian, queer (but see note above)	homosexual, alternative

Resources 

• GLAAD provides a useful Media Reference Guide.

Many terms are used in broad, indistinct ways when specificity would be preferable. For example, the term “Asian” covers an enormous range of ethnicities and cultures from a vast geographical area, and although the term isn’t generally considered offensive, its imprecision can be problematic. If race/ethnicity is warranted in a description and you are able to ask, find out how people prefer to be identified. In all situations, be as specific as possible.  

Black people, White people	black people, white people (caps for Black and White), Blacks, Whites (don’t use as nouns)
African American	African-American
legacy, preexisting	grandfathered (note that the term is problematic primarily because of race)
Latino, Latina, Latine	Latinx
students from diverse backgrounds	diverse students
person/people of color (POC), student(s) of color (SOC) (these are preferred, but BIPOC is acceptable)	non-White
multiracial, multiethnic	mixed, mixed race
Asian (but see notes above about specificity)	Oriental
cheat	gyp
Minority Serving Institution (MSI)
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs)
Tribal Colleges

Resources 

• See the APA’s Racial and Ethnic Identity page for guidance. 
• The Council of Science Editors provides a web page on Inclusive Language: Race and Ethnicity.  

living with (a disability or diagnosis)	suffering from
person/people without disabilities	able bodied
person/people with disability/disabilities	the disabled (n.), differently abled
has a disability	is handicapped
blind, legally blind, low vision	visually impaired
Deaf (the community), deaf (audiological status), partial hearing loss, hard of hearing	hearing impaired
has a learning disability	dumb, slow learner
a problematic webinar, a malware-infected system	lame, crippled, cripple (v.) (to describe objects or activities)

Resources 

• The ADA National Network provides a clear set of guidelines for writing about people with disabilities. 
• The National Center on Disability and Journalism has created an extensive style guide covering terminology and usage.  

low-income, people experiencing poverty	poor, impoverished
people experiencing homelessness	homeless (n.)
emerging economy (when possible, name the country)	third-world country, developing country

Resources 

• The DC Fiscal Policy Institute has developed a Style Guide for Inclusive Language that provides useful guidance in this area. 

Gen X, Gen Y / Millennial, Gen Z (but see this article for an argument against using “generation” labels at all)	digital native
legacy, preexisting	grandfathered (note that the term is problematic because of age but primarily because of race)
older, experienced, people over [age]	elderly, senior citizen, senior (n.), of a certain age
youth, young person, teen/teenager/preteen	immature, childish

Resources 

• AARP offers a list of ageist terminology. 
• The Silver Century Foundation provides guidance about how to avoid ageist language.  
• The Conscious Style Guide offers insights into the ways ageism affects younger people. 

allow, allowlist, safe senders list, disallow, disallowlist, denylist, blocklist	whitelist, blacklist
primary/secondary, main/subordinate	master/slave
perimeter network	demilitarized zone (DMZ)
placeholder value	dummy value
ethical hacking, security assessment test (but in some cases the particular meaning of “penetration test” requires that term)	penetration test
plug, socket/jack	male, female (when referring to cable connectors)

Resources 

• The University of California, Irvine has put together an Inclusive IT Language Guide that covers many of these issues.  
• The Research Education Networks Information Sharing and Analysis Center (REN-ISAC) has released a guide for Using Inclusive Language in IT. 
• A blog post from Localization Lab explains why some tech terms are offensive.