Fwd: Re: Neutral language in W3C specifications

Everyone,

Would welcome guidance on this.

I suggested that the Publication (Pub) Rules might look for gender 
specific pronouns, and this can be done, but I'm not sure what the best 
editorial advice for editors should be.

The use of pronouns doesn't come up often in specifications, though it 
does sometimes when there are use cases or user stories that illustrate 
the reason for a particular feature.

The guidance could suggest using they/them as the standard pronouns, or 
that editors should make sure there is an even balance of they/them, 
he/him, she/her etc., or something else?

Léonie.
-------- Forwarded Message --------Subject: Re: Neutral language in W3C 
specifications
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2020 15:03:01 +0400From: Denis Ah-Kang 
<denis@w3.org>To: lwatson@tetralogical.com, Spec-prod 
<spec-prod@w3.org>, chairs@w3.orgHi Leonie,
Thank you for your feedback. Sure, we can also add these
pronouns to the list of terms to detect.
Do you have a preference or suggestion as to what our guidance
to the editors should be in those cases?

Denis


On 7/22/20 1:21 PM, Léonie Watson wrote:
> Denis, this is a really positive step, thank you to you and the team.
> 
> One suggestion - is it possible for PubRules to check for gender 
> specific pronouns (he/she, him/her etc.) too?
> 
> They are rare in specifications, but do sometimes feature as part of use 
> cases or examples.
> 
> Léonie.
> 
> On 22/07/2020 09:40, Denis Ah-Kang wrote:
>> Dear editors and chairs,
>>
>> In order to offer the best environment possible to its
>> community, W3C is supporting the push for a more inclusive and
>> neutral language, especially in our specifications.
>>
>> In the upcoming weeks, pubrules [1] will show a warning if
>> terms like "master", "slave", "grandfather", "sanity" or
>> "dummy" are detected in a specification and this will also
>> be reflected in the Manual of style [2] with a list of
>> alternatives.
>> Note, since it may take time for the editors to change the
>> branch name "master" to something else, we will not flag the
>> URLs containing that word in the first place.
>>
>> Going forward, we will audit all the specification repositories
>> and open issues if they contain problematic terms.
>>
>> Let me know if you have any comments/suggestions.
>>
>> Denis
>> W3C Systems team
>>
>> [1] https://www.w3.org/pubrules/
>> [2] https://w3c.github.io/manual-of-style/
>>
>

Received on Wednesday, 22 July 2020 11:23:44 UTC