Skip to main content

Inclusive Writing

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Web Accessibility

Abstract

This chapter introduces inclusive writing and how to incorporate it into research. We give general guidelines on language choice and suggestions on writing for and about specific user groups. However, language is constantly evolving. Preferred language for writing about people with disabilities changes over time, and with context, and can be a source of disagreement even within a user group. The inclusive writing approach proposed here covers three key points: use the included terminology and considerations as a starting point; verify language choices and other assumptions through feedback with participants; and strive for respect in all research interactions. The chapter also explores how careful thinking about language can make an entire research project more accessible and inclusive.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 229.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 299.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Cavender A, Trewin S, Hanson VL (2008) General writing guidelines for technology and people with disabilities. SIGACCESS Access Comput 92:17–22. https://doi.org/10.1145/1452562.1452565

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn DS, Andrews E (2015) Person-first and identity-first language: developing psychologists’ cultural competence using disability language. Am Psychol 70:255–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foreman P (2005) Language and disability. J Intellect Dev Disabil 30(1):57–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gernsbacher MA et al (2016) Special needs’ is an ineffective euphemism. Cogn Res Princ Implic 1:29 (PMC. Web. 22 June 2018)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanson VL, Cavender A, Trewin S (2015) Writing about accessibility. Interactions 22(6):62–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hehir T, Grindal T, Freeman B, Lamoreau R, Borquaye Y, Burke S (2016) A summary of the evidence on inclusive education. ABT Associates https://alana.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/A_Summary_of_the_evidence_on_inclusive_education.pdf. Accessed 1 July 2018

  • Kenny L, Hattersley C, Molins B, Buckley C, Povey C, Pellicano E (2016) Which terms should be used to describe autism? Perspectives from the UK autism community. Autism 20(4):442–462. The National Autistic Society

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirkpatrick A, O’Connor J, Cooper M (2018) Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. W3C Recommendation 5 June 2018. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/. Accessed 1 July 2018

  • Lazar J, Feng JH, Hochheiser H (2017) Research methods in human-computer interaction, 2nd edn. Morgan Kaufmann, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Loftus E, Palmer J (1974) Reconstruction of automobile destruction: an example of the interaction between language and memory. J Verbal Learn Verbal Behav 13:585–589

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Center on Disability and Journalism (2018) Disability language style guide. http://ncdj.org/style-guide/. Accessed 2 July 2018

  • Seeman L, Cooper M (2015) Cognitive accessibility user research. W3C First Public Working Draft 15 January 2015 https://www.w3.org/TR/coga-userresearch/. Accessed 1 July 2018

  • Sears A, Hanson VL (2011) Representing users in accessibility research. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 2235–2238. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979268

  • Smith M, Sharit J, Czaja S (1999) Aging, motor control, and the performance of computer mouse tasks. Hum Factors 41(3):389–396. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872099779611102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trewin S, Richards JT, Hanson VL, Sloan D, John BE, Swart C, Thomas JC (2012) Understanding the role of age and fluid intelligence in information search. In: Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on computers and accessibility (ASSETS ‘12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1145/2384916.2384938

  • UN General Assembly (2007) Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities: resolution/adopted by the General Assembly, 24 Jan 2007, A/RES/61/106. Available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/45f973632.html. Accessed 3 July 2018

  • United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015) World population ageing 2015 (ST/ESA/SER.A/390)

    Google Scholar 

  • US Census Bureau (2016) 2016 American community survey 1-year estimates. https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/16_1YR/S181. Accessed 31 Aug 2018

  • White K, Abou-Zahra S, Henry SL (2016) Tips for getting started writing for web accessibility. Available at https://www.w3.org/WAI/tips/writing/. Accessed 31 Aug 2018

  • Yesilada Y, Brajnik G, Vigo M, Harper, S (2012) Understanding web accessibility and its drivers. In: Proceedings of the international cross-disciplinary conference on web accessibility (W4A ‘12). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 19, 9 pp. https://doi.org/10.1145/2207016.2207027

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Gower .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Babinszki, T. et al. (2019). Inclusive Writing. In: Yesilada, Y., Harper, S. (eds) Web Accessibility. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7440-0_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-7440-0_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-7439-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-7440-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics