Content aims to reflect Passbase's vision for a more accessible internet by making content more accessible and usable to the widest possible audience. Writing for accessibility requires making content available to people who access and move through the world in different ways. Accessibility will affect how you organize content on the page, word choices, and media formats. Inclusion will also affect the language you choose so as to address viewers in a way that respects people of all gender identities, race, class, nationalities, neurological makeup, or physical abilities.
We write to reach a diverse audience of readers who will interact with our content in different ways. To do this, we aim to make our content accessible to people who may not be accessing information on a default display screen. This means they may be using a screen reader, keyboard navigation, or Braille interface, or process information with neurodiverse capabilities.
When writing, keep asking the following questions:
Writing for accessibility can be similar to approaches for writing technical content. Even if you are not writing technical content, you can refer to information there for inspiration.
Using language to be inclusive requires reflecting on and reconsidering our word choices. Implicit biases and assumptions are built into how sentences are phrased and the terms we use. Angles to consider word choices include along the lines of accessibility and disability, age, gender, ethnicity and race, religion, health, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity, and geographical region as well as their intersections.
Writing more inclusively is a practice. A lot of reading may go into a decision about a single word. That is okay. Take the time. Have a conversation if you are unsure. Below are some examples:
Yes
Freshman
They
Allowlist/denylist
No
First-year student
His (generic pronoun)
Blacklist/Whitelist
Why
Freshman is a US term, while first-year student can be understood in any geography
To remove the male-centered singular and because we do not need to assume the gender of the individual.
The term is implicitly racist.
A Slack thread discussing terms here. Also refer to this link
Because diversity covers a range of topics, no single guide will be comprehensive. Links below are a starting point and writers are encouraged to click through to referenced materials in these links or do additional research. Under the context of the guide and the writers' backgrounds will also inform your integration of the terminology. If in doubt, ask.
Conscious Style Guide provides lists of guides for topics such as accessibility, age, gender, ethnicity and race, religion, health, socioeconomic status
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace provides a good starting list