Inclusive technology has a role to play

Inclusive technology has a role to play

Technology doesn’t have a great reputation when it comes to promoting greater diversity and inclusion. A quick internet search uncovers plenty of real-world examples where unfair machine learning algorithms have led to exclusion and downright poor choices.

You might think that technology has nothing helpful to offer when it comes to diversity and inclusion. But ethical technology can be an essential part of diversity and inclusion, and social change. In fact, it has to be. Why? Because we spend, on average, 3 hours and 15 minutes a day looking at a screen, and everything we consume has the power to perpetuate or shift our biases and present the idea of possibility and fairness for all people.

Salesforce is just one example of a company that has embraced technology to help roll out an enterprise-wide inclusive language initiative. Salesforce has been working to identify and replace certain technical terms across their products to make their technology (and technical documentation) more inclusive.

Hint: This blog post by Salesforce lists the technologies it’s using to help scale the company’s inclusive language.

Ultimately, we need to view technology as an enabler and not a savior. The impetus is on people and companies to practice and implement the principles of inclusion and diversity. Technology is a useful support system, but not something we should roll out as a “quick fix” to solve broader problems. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t educate us to make better choices, be consistent in our efforts, track our progress, and hold ourselves accountable for our mistakes. So the question is, which technology is right for your company? Let’s explore how the Acrolinx inclusive language feature could help the diversity and inclusion initiative at your organization!