As an organization, Accenture believes in building an inclusive workplace and contributing to a world where equality thrives. Certain terms or expressions can unintentionally harm, perpetuate damaging stereotypes, and insult people. Inclusive language avoids bias, slang terms, and word choices which express derision of groups of people based on race, gender, sexuality, or socioeconomic status. The Accenture North America Technology team created this guidebook to provide Accenture employees with a view into inclusive language and guidance for working to avoid its use—helping to ensure that we communicate with respect, dignity and fairness.
How to use this guide?
As of 8/2023, Accenture has over 730,000 employees from diverse backgrounds, who perform consulting and delivery work for an equally diverse set of clients and partners. When communicating with your colleagues and representing Accenture, consider the connotation, however unintended, of certain terms in your written and verbal communication. The guidelines are intended to help you recognize non-inclusive words and understand potential meanings that these words might convey. Our goal with these recommendations is not to require you to use specific words, but to ask you to take a moment to consider how your audience may be affected by the language you choose.
| Inclusive Categories | Non-inclusive term | Replacement | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Race, Ethnicity & National Origin | master | primary client source leader |
Using the terms “master/slave” in this context inappropriately normalizes and minimizes the very large magnitude that slavery and its effects have had in our history. |
| slave | secondary replica follower |
||
| blacklist | deny list block list |
The term “blacklist” was first used in the early 1600s to describe a list of those who were under suspicion and thus not to be trusted, whereas “whitelist” referred to those considered acceptable. Accenture does not want to promote the association of “black” and negative, nor the connotation of “white” being the inverse, or positive. | |
| whitelist | allow list approved list |
||
| native | original core feature |
Referring to “native” vs “non-native” to describe technology platforms carries overtones of minimizing the impact of colonialism on native people, and thus minimizes the negative associations the terminology has in the latter context. | |
| non-native | non-original non-core feature |
||
| Gender & Sexuality | man-hours | work-hours business-hours |
When people read the words ‘man’ or ‘he,’ people often picture males only. Usage of the male terminology subtly suggests that only males can perform certain work or hold certain jobs. Gender-neutral terms include the whole audience, and thus using terms such as “business executive” instead of “businessman,” or informally, “folks” instead of “guys” is preferable because it is inclusive. |
| man-days | work-days business-days |
||
| Ability Status & (Dis)abilities | sanity check insanity check |
confidence check quality check rationality check |
Using the “Human Engagement, People First’ approach, putting people - all people - at the center is important. Denoting ability status in the context of inferior or problematic work implies that people with mental illnesses are inferior, wrong, or incorrect. |
| dummy variables | indicator variables | ||
| Violence | STONITH, kill, hit | conclude cease discontinue |
Using the “Human Engagement, People First’ approach, putting people - all people - at the center is important. Denoting ability status in the context of inferior or problematic work implies that people with mental illnesses are inferior, wrong, or incorrect. |
| one throat to choke | single point of contact primary contact |
This guidebook is a living document and will be updated as terminology evolves. We encourage our users to provide feedback on the effectiveness of this document and we welcome additional suggestions. Contact us at Technology_ProjectElevate@accenture.com.